Originally Posted by
father_ted
I thought about this recently - as requalified GGL/imminent GfL but with no chance to keep GGL 26/27, I am finding that I retain a BA preference in 25/26, knowing they will continue to treat me well.
But where I would pretty much always have booked domestic / band 1-2 in CE for the TP, I have found myself saving the money in Y as GGL(fL) is now impossible.
Post April 2026 GfL will keep me on BA and AA for short-haul, albeit with more Y on short sectors. I'll also save money not being tied to an alliance on long-haul, as decent lounges are included with the ticket price.
This comes around to what I think BA have underestimated - from silver to GGL, BAEC kept customers flying BA as the perks meant they were offered a better product than the competition. The more people have cards, the more people prefer BA and therefore exert upward pressure on pricing. Yes, the lounges were too full, but getting rid of double tier points would have fixed that.
It feels like a classic case of a project losing its way - rebranding to remove 'Executive' and aim more at the growth in premium leisure... while disproportionately rewarding the shrinking numbers on rebated corporate full-fare.
I think that's the thing. This won't make people 'never fly BA again' but it will make them re-evaluate individual trips.
Take my usual route - JER-LGW/LHR, and imagine my fare options one-way are £65 on EZY, £90 in ET, and £165 in CE - not an unusual set of prices. I have EZY plus and Priority Pass so the ex-JER experience is equivalent with either airline. Previously there were a lot of occasions where I might have opted for CE to get the extra TPs. But now the TPs on that fare are of such little value for status purposes, it's much less likely I'll pay for CE on such a short flight. So that narrows down my options to EZY or ET, and there's nothing to my mind that justifies spending anything more on ET than EZY (if anything EZY plus gets me row 1 most flights and quite often an empty middle seat, so I might have a slight preference for EZY).
BA might not care about me paying an extra £75 for CE or taking an online upgrade, but they certainly used to care given how heavily they promoted the upgrades. There are some revenue sources that will dry up under the new system - whether that matters will depend on the overall economics of it.