Overreaction to changes?
 

Hi
Having read some of the comments on here, I can't help thinking that people are overreacting. Devastated, gutted, heartbroken I have read!? Is it really that bad?

Whilst there isn't an exact corelation between number of avios and wealth, it's equally true, that a well paid CEO is going to have more than a student barman, hence the value of your avios is less important.

Let's say you have 250k avios, and you now think they are devalued, to suggest a couple of numbers, you used to vale them at 2400 pounds, now 1800, so you have lost 600 quid. Your boiler could break tomorrow and you would lose that! And if you have 250k avios, I'm assuming you have spent cash on BA which implies you have cash.

Is it really impacting on anyone's lives so much that they need to be gutted or heartbroken? A bit cheesed off for 5 minutes, but then back to living life I would say.

Plus massive amount of comments on here saying lounges are busy and there is no redemption availability, this should make it both better. You can't have it both ways...

For people who spend a significant portion of their lives on the road FFP benefits are one of the few perks of being away from home.

Mighty peed off would be more reasonable. And I am.

I'm just an ordinary bloke trying to avoid 40% tax by increasing his pension contributions.

Close on the numbers. Somebody has just taken £600 off me. In addition they've promised to pay me less in future. A lot less.

My family are each 40 tier points off lounge access. The idea of a 220 mile trip to Gatwick in October to hop on a BA flight to trigger a Silver badge ahead of a few big trips get year now becomes pointless.

A cruise now becomes more fun and better value to my family. It's probably cost BA around £10,000 over the next 18 months from this household. Paid for flights. Cold garden cash.

Their call.

This ^

As a small business owner, I am not impacted much, but putting myself into the place of a road warrior, who has been able to pour oil on troubled family waters by providing highly subsidised holidays, I can understand the strong emotional reaction from some.

Those with long FT memories will recall that every change has been accompanied by much wailing and gnashing and those taking their cash elsewhere. And then after 3 months life has carried on as normal. Just a human response to change I guess.

The reaction to the great N America changes about 12 years ago would have you expecting entirely empty planes across the Atlantic ever since. Not quite...

I tried to make the same point in the other thread. Life goes on. Things change. We'll find something new to complain about in a couple of months.

Not that this doesn't suck, of course

What Swanhunter says.

Whenever people are invested more than usually in certain ideas, products, brands, and even FFPs, change is often met with a (overly) strong first reaction, even change that is a net positive. In a case like this, where there are many "losers", there are bound to be more negative than positive voices. Their tone might soften a bit in the coming days and weeks, but I'm pretty sure some on here will actually stay true to what they are saying now and will switch their allegiance to other programs. After all, cold hard facts and numbers work both ways.

Whether 12 months from now people on here will see this as a net positive, I guess, will depend on 3 things:

1) how they value avalability,
2) how the availability situation develops (I hardly think it will stay as rosy as it currently is for all routes, beginning in the summer), and
3) what their flying habits are. Predominantly shorthaul flying Y customers might stay underwhelmed, and for good reason.

If the whole FFP-game was only worth an occasional 5 minutes of being "cheesed off", then sites like this one, and many many others besides, would not exist!!!

For the average bloke, yes. For committed Avios connoisseurs - no!!!

Same feelings from the crowd when Hilton devalued points some years ago. I was sitting on 2m then and got caught badly. Learned my lesson to spend when I could, even of value was not all that great. Have been doing same with BA and only have 400k or so, which I will spend very soon now.

Travel loyalty is not what it once was, and maybe trying new things will spice life up.

I understand that people are upset and I quickly went through the changes yesterday which affect me too trying to keep Gold.
I am not the happiest bunny about it but there is not much I can do about it.

Yes it will be harder to maintain Gold but a bit of strategic booking on BA/OW should make it happen.

I, like many others, use the cheapest Y option in Economy on short European flights and getting half the TPs will be harsh, but the odd CE trip or POUG combined with a longhaul trips hopefully will do the trick. Again like many others, I rather now be in the Exit row than in row 2 or 3 in CE with the new configuration.
I am not too bothered about the Avios earning rate, I am using the 2-4-1 when I can and maybe from now on I will just have to wait a bit longer to have enough in my household account to make it a"nice" trip.

Let's face it, no one likes change and I am certainly not over the moon about it, but I am certainly not gutted , heartbroken or feel betrayed, there's is more important things in life. Many of us knew this was coming anyhow.

The hardest hit seem to be SCHs and the leisure card holders who strategically planned their trips to get Lounge Access, and yes they would be most upset by these changes, so would I be. Silver on *A for example only gives you Lounge Access on the "owning" carrier but not across the Alliance, like Oneworld does.
But then again, BA lets you take a guest into the Lounge (for now), not many other FFPs, if any, allow this either.

Getting status on Shorthaul is hard everywhere, it really only works with a few longhaul premium Cabin trips.

I won't switch and my guess is, despite many are saying right now, actually not that many will or some may come back after a while.

But of course everyone is different and has their own opinion.

Apart from the RFS changes which are a big blow to those in the regions (I'll keep saying it, all they had to do was close the unlimited stopover loophole) this is almost BAEC getting back to its roots.

When I first looked at the scheme you couldn't even join BAEC if you only flew discount economy. You needed a fully flex flight or a flight in a premium class. Once you were in earnings were very poor for those on the cheap tickets.

I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago when they seemed to be bucking the trend and offered 100% miles on the cheapest fares. It became a scheme that encouraged all flyers.

BA has done their figures and must have decided that this wasn't working as well as they wanted and now just want to concentrate on the high yield again. Unfortunately there's now no diamond club for people to move back to and Delta UK's Flying Club is only suitable if you're flying their routes.

What loophole?

I'm not entirely convinced there is one, or that it matters at all to BA. They don't really care whether you stopover for a night, a week, a month or 6 months, and whether you "build" the stopover into a positioning flight for another journey.

They just don't want to give away free domestic flights anymore - end of!

The reaction is positively measured compared to the 2012 changes, when a certain section of users went into meltdown!

Adiosgate

It's a game I stopped playing some time ago. The business no longer supports it (I'm lucky to get 2-3 long haul trips a year), so the changes don't exactly make earning any benefits less feasible! I have over 600000 miles with BA; the best benefit will be had from spending them.

For those who suddenly find getting the next card up, or lounge access, that little bit harder, I'd advise caution if thinking of taking your business elsewhere. When one airline dumps on its customers, the other have a nasty habit of following suit.

If you used the flight to connect to the shorthaul EU flight it's not really a free domestic flight it's going out your way to use BA.