Originally Posted by
Wozza2404
Blogs will have played a significant part in the reasoning as to why these changes were deemed necessary. Articles offering step by step guides to hitting Gold for £2k. Articles advocating lounge crawling across T3.
The very pax these blogs were aimed at in order to generate ad revenue and points referrals for the authors are now the ones taking a kicking from those same authors.
It is quite a narrow view to think that this is a reaction to blogs, £2k GCHs or lounge crawlers.
A business case would have been made to drive significant additional [high margin] spend through capturing a larger slice of the travel cake. You can see where the temptation is: encourage more punters to book via BAH, collecting 20-30% commission on hotel spend, paying for it on their BA Amex, driving further profit, etc.
Evidence will have been used from the success of the TPs from spend on the BA Amex card and the growth in BAH due to the double TPs promotion.
These are all high-margin spend activities for BA which they wish to encourage by rewarding with status in the BAC. I do not think for one moment that bloggers played any part in this decision.