Final paid for trip was last month, LHR-GLA-LHR-OTP (5 nights BAH) OTP-LHR-GLA-LHR for 560 TP total and a last year of gold. Mrs OB still thinks I'm bonkers although she does very much like First Wing and Flounge and was more than happy to use them last week for our redemption flights.

Absolutely would not have done this trip without the changes. We have been doing a year to earn [gold] then a year to burn, dropping to silver. The change of calendar year stuffed me a little for this year's "earn" despite paid for F flights and so I would have happily just stayed silver and built next year's "burn" around some trips to maintain status. That's not going to happen now, is it?

So the hope now is that if we retain those soft landings next year, this trip has bought me 2 years of status to burn through the Avios pile. After that we can think about what's next, and fingers crossed in March 26 there will be a LOT of status matches on offer.