Originally Posted by
Arctic Troll
Perhaps I'm giving BA too much credit but IAG are not amateurs and one would assume that they do have the numbers to support the rationale for the change.
My view, for what it's worth, is that moving to a revenue-based model makes much more sense. The only measure of loyalty any business really gives a stuff about is pounds and pence spent directly with them. You can see that in the way TPs will be issued for flying on OW partners other than under a BA codeshare: other than QR (who effectively own 25% of IAG) and their joint business partner AY, the partner TPs are very low.
I do have a sneaky suspicion that BA have overshot with the thresholds- a £20,000 net spend for gold is a lot of money regardless of who is paying. I can well see them backtracking slightly. Probably not directly but by applying a small TP multiplier to people who hold Bronze or Silver status, or by offering TP bonuses to people close to the next tier.
I'd be better off under the new scheme than under the old one- with my BAH spend I'd pretty much be bronze under the new scheme but under the old one I'm only halfway there, even with the double TPs.
But I accept my position is relatively niche: my travel often involves a Loganair connecting flight under a BA codeshare that can often be £175-£200 each way yet only nets me 5TP or 10TP each way. 150/3500 is better than 5/300.
IAG are not amateurs...
My survey seems to say otherwise:
1) The BA website and app both being incredibly faulty. It literally can't keep me logged in which seems a pretty basic concept.
2) Aer Lingus being one of the worst airlines globally.
3) A 15 year struggle to integrate Aer Lingus into OW and align avios/points.
4) IT infrastructure being buggy at best. Often resulting in check-in issues and in some cases bumping.
5) The BA economy Europe product being substandard to other flag carriers and only marginally superior (mainly seat quality) to budget airlines.
6) The business product being subpar vs other global carriers.
7) Regional lounges being non-existent/poor.
I could overlook these issues when I took into account Gold benefits but am I really going to direct travel to that model if the outcome is far less certain given the changes. This is from someone who's been gold for well over a decade. I probably direct somewhere between £10-80k in spend towards BA a year with an average of about £15-20k. That always secured gold through that period.
Really disappointed in these changes and whilst T5 had felt like home base for many years, this just feels like a kick in the nuts.