I’ve been lurking this thread for some time and wasn’t considering posting as I am not one of the those really BA fanatics, but …

Here is my attitude change towards BA…

I was G* for several years. Purely achieved through QR and RJ holiday bookings to SE due to my holiday preferences. Dropped down to S* after the BAEC changes announcement. Had a decent stash of Avios and decided to burn them before a major devaluation. I was up before midnight waiting for seats to SYD, with an Amex voucher, but my ultimate destination was AKL. Checked QR and realised that seats were available from
MAD. Booked that instead as the difference in taxes meant that a positioning flight and a hotel stay was still cheaper than booking with BA… and arguably having a much better long-haul J experience. When looking for the return journey from SYD, found F availability on QR to DOH and J to CDG. Booked that instead of BA. Less Avios and taxes, but a nicer travel experience again.

Than I found an amazing J return to HKG from LON to HKG, for £1450, which includes a free stop over in IST (hotel provided by TK, which costs £210 for this date).

I then had a booking to KL in CW with an AMEX voucher, which costs 87500 and £885 in taxes. My destination was HKT, which required a hotel stay in KL and another £200 for flights. I realised that if I fly QR from DUB, this is just 62500 more Avios but almost £600 less in taxes, so the difference covers the positioning flight to DUB, a hotel stay and a nice dinner (based on boosting Avios at 0.0092p).

I also decided to book QR back from SIN with QR as difference in taxes covered the difference flying with BA.

I cleverly used my BA status to match to Flying Blue, and before it expired matched it to RJ, so for another couple of hundreds of £, I saved a lot of seats and luggage fees… not even factoring priority boarding, lounge access etc.

I had some really terrible long-haul flights with BA in the last couple of years, and after an initial shock of the BAEC changes (as that was my hobby as well, and feel robbed of it), I now feel that it led to an enlightenment and sort of freedom.

Despite being a purely leisure self funded traveller, I still do around 45-50 flights a year, and now having the freedom of not chasing OW status feels really liberating. I just book the most convenient and value based flights instead. Having PP membership through Amex Platinum helps a lot as well, as lounge access in SE Asia is awesome.

All in all, a happy ex-BA frequent flyer..