It would work for BA too if they were a US airline. The Eco system for a payback type of system, which this now is rather than a loyalty scheme, is much better supported in the US where margin on credit card spend is significantly more than in Europe

But I do believe even Delta rolled back some of the initially proposed changes. Delta also communicated clearly and had all elements lined up well in advance. BA failed miserably at that and IMHO are still failing.

I always thought the role of a loyalty program is to incentivise customers to favour your offering rather than a competitor. You did this by creating an environment where something otherwise special or unattainable is put within reach in return for loyalty to a brand and perhaps even sometimes illogically so.

The new scheme gives a fixed defined payback to customers that, yes, might be your biggest cash cows, but were always going to be buying your product anyway. In doing so though you push away those that were filling your otherwise empty seats. The best loyalty programs do both.

This will not currently bother BA since profits are strong, aircraft are full and fares are generally high. But alienating those that can keep you going when the £8k per round trip folk are not flying will almost certainly end badly. By that time though the current iteration of executives will have taken their bonuses and moved along.