This is either a flood of bookings before March 31st, or a flood of complaints to customer service.

Certainly isn�t a huge jump in benefits�

Don�t think the below has been posted yet but BA now being very explicit that soft landings are staying for now.

Correct. LT Plat until March 1 then Lifetime EXP

Currently EXP thru March 1 so "technically" I am LT EXP unless AA changes their mind

Personally I think this is brilliant news.

BA will now reward loyalty for those who are generating its revenue / profit, rather than from those who don�t or who game the system; and I hope the higher qualification rates will go a long way to reduce to numbers in each of the respective tiers.

I look forward to quieter lounges, less of a scrum for Group 1 boarding and greater exclusivity.

Thank you BA - perhaps you do listen.

About 10 years ago, my firm hired McKinsey (at inordinate expense) to come up with some big strategic ideas.

When they presented all of their findings, and after much soul searching, we concluded that it was 50/50 as to whether their proposals would ultimately improve our business/profitability, but that it was 100% likely that they would rip apart our culture. We ultimately ignored almost all of them. We are now twice as big and twice as profitable. Who knows; perhaps we could have been three times as big and three times as profitable�but I doubt it (and none of their models suggested as much).

Sometimes the people who are paid to run a business day-to-day really are the people who know what�s best for it. And - if they�re not - the answer is to replace them. I don�t think the answer is ever to hire some very expensive outside consultants who understand spreadsheets but normally don�t understand the multifaceted �soft� things which really make a business tick.

This current debacle has not changed my mind. (And I say that as someone who is a happy GCH and will likely remain as such under the new system).

Madness.

YMMV.

I follow the logic, but would be curious to see the actual numbers. I would suspect it's closer to 1:10 who will be engaged v. disengaged, and the incremental losses from disengaged current golds and GGLs could be much greater given the gulf between silver and gold.

I don't game the system and do tier points runs, etc. I have participated in the BA Holidays double tier points offer, the credit card offer, and sometimes I will take an extra connection if it doesn't add more than two hours to a long-haul. Depending on the year, I spend �12k-�15k (2/3 employer). In my case, there will be an immediate �2500 loss from downgrading from Club Europe flights (to my second home) that I booked only to keep status. As soon as I'm confident I'll hit the �7k for silver, which could be credit card spend + one work trans-Atlantic flight, I'll switch to buying on price -- including for other work flights. (I have a 15% tolerance that I use to choose BA over United, which is usually cheaper.) That could easily be another �5k or more. Or maybe it won't be if BA is the lowest cost. What I won't be doing is spending an extra �5k(!) to chase gold.

I have run a rewards program (in a different industry). Pounds and pence are important for sure. But the mistake we made at first was rewarding too much spend we would've gotten anyway, and not doing enough to drive incremental spend. That's what I fear BA is doing here.

An interesting article, which starts:

Attaining British Airways Club Gold elite status is an aspirational feat.

The perks are aplenty and the feeling it gives during travel can be really meaningful.

A genuine question: did some people have shinier gold cards than others? I became gold, quite accidentally, in 2022 through an increase in work travel. My first impression - which hasn�t changed much since - is that it�s a nice Silver+ tier, but nothing terribly special. The Flounge offers much the same food and drink as Galleries Club does, with a few trinkets thrown in like �25 bottles of plonk. It�s generally a little less crowded, but not by much. The First Wing is great, but as I connect in Heathrow from a domestic I only use it once on a typical 4 segment UK-US return. Group 1 versus 2 boarding is much of a muchness.

It wasn�t really worth 2.5X the tier points required under the old system - definitely not worth stretching for. It�s certainly not worth the �20k price tag BA has put on it under the new system. I certainly don�t recognise the meaningful, aspirational perks GSTP opines about.

I've been digesting the news since it was announced, and I think I can now quantify how I am feeling about the whole thing.

As a founding member of the Executive Club since its inception, all of my travels, plans and itineraries revolved around making the best use of my membership for decades. Having that mindset exploded overnight has come as a complete shock. The first thing that came to mind was the recent Jaguar 'relaunch' where they made it clear that their legacy customers were no longer of interest. It almost feels like discovering a partner you thought you knew has been living a double life and surprised you about how they actually feel about you before filing for divorce. Sure, no-one has died, and life will go on, but it does feel like a sense of betrayal. Having stuck with them through thick and thin, we are no longer of value.

So I guess its onto pastures new for us, as it will not only affect my business, family and I to try out alternative carriers, but I genuinely think this will prove to be a critical defining moment for BA - where they have bet the family silver on heading in a new direction. If it fails, then they will have burned both of their bridges by alienating their previously loyal suffering clients whom will be loathed to forget being cast aside so unceremoniously with no notice....

I wonder whether we could do a poll to gauge how this forum's members will fare under the system?

- Retain existing status
- Drop a tier or more
- Ditch BA for another oneworld scheme
- Ditch BA for another alliance / non-aligned airline

one more option

- wait and see, it�s too early to react

My biggest take away from all of this is how blindsided most of us have been by the announcement. I always thought revenue status would come at some point but the speed and extent of the changes are both quite something. If it tells us anything, it tells us that very few of us have a decent insight into what BA’s strategy is regarding customer loyalty. Recall, if you will, the endless discussions about a reward at 5000 TPs which was, accordingly to many well informed customers on this forum, awaiting sign off from the head of loyalty or something like that. That was just a few months ago. We were undoubtedly strung along with this chat from BA and I even attended a very exclusive GGL event recently where it was discussed quite openly as an upgrade for the GGL programme to be announced imminently.

I am loathed to speculate further given what has happened but mere logic suggests that Gold and GGL have been made much harder to attain so that BA can start throwing new levels of goodies at their most profitable customers. Logic also dictates that much of the new, better love will be held back until the tier point runners, Honolulu golds, premium leisure double TP players etc, are out of the system, so as to not rub salt into wounds. But who knows. After the brunch and supper debacles our biggest mistake may simply be in assuming that logic prevails at all.

It's worse than that. Those previously loyal middle-tier customers BA no longer cares about in these times of plenty will move on to establish long-running relationships with other airlines and will not be coming back to BA in times of hardship unless (until?) those other airlines oust them similarly. BA will be left with the few top VIPs it cares about and a mass of price-sensitive holiday flyers who will judge BA against LCCs.

But hey, the C suite will get their short-term bonus package and that's good enough.

One technical question. If next year (assuming Soft Landing not confirmed) I earn 10,000pts, and fail to retain Gold, will the system recategorise me as Silver, or will I drop straight to blue?

Sounds obvious answer, but given the insanity emerging from waterside this week...

True for the last two options, I guess I'm interested in finding out how many of us would not achieve renewals of our existing status based on current / expected flying patterns.

What an absolutely pathetic new policy. It is now impossible to gain Gold status by flying short-haul business class unless you want to fly over 70 flights a year…..

So what used to be 19 return Business Class flights to Brussels to achieve Gold will now just get me to Bronze in the future.

I have made it to Gold until 2026, but I can assure you, the second my new tier collection year starts, I will be emptying the 300,000 Avios that I have saved on redemption flights and then moving over to Brussels Airlines.

This is not how you treat your long term loyal customers - I will say it again. Pathetic decision BA - PATHETIC.