I haven't managed to read every post in the foregoing, so apologies, but something I haven't seen raised yet is the bait and switch angle in all this:

As an expat anglo -- and long time gold -- I try to balance a reasonably substantial professional work travel budget with my own travel spend, with the aim being to to maximize value for both, across various carriers (with a bias towards the UK because personal reasons). The key to all this is balance: had I been told that these changes were coming at the time that BAEC (re)aligned TP collection dates, I would have immediately changed my patterns towards burning miles on BAEC for personal travel and increasing my status with other carriers going forwards. Why? Because, IMO, given the changes, BA have gone from being a fairly poor airline with a good FF program that I am happy to fly with all things considered (the line I use to explain my travel pattens with colleagues) to a simply poor airline without any of that.

But I wasn't informed, and so I chose to cover the annoying gap BA interpolated between my December TP year end and the April realignment, meaning that I personally paid for some not inexpensive fights in Jan/Feb (not peak work flying time most years for me) to keep what I had assumed would keep an ongoing status relationship going forward. Had BA told me of their intentions, see above: it would have been clear that spending my own money on BA was a poor value proposition, meaning that all those flights would have been avois redemptions.

But I wasn't told, and I bit. First they change the year ends, then I respond to their new demands to accommodate it, and then only finally afterwards did they tell me what they actually had in mind. The slow reveal, which to my mind seems like BA's very own version of 'find the lady'.

How did Jonny Rotten, put it -- "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Yes, actually I do. Will I throw my toys out of the pram and promise to never fly BA again? Nope. Will I bias my spend away from them? 100%. And will I suggest the same to the colleagues I supervise? Absolutely.

Caveat venditor. None of us likes to feel like a chump. For me, this has changed from a loyalty program to a generator of hostility. I suspect I'm not the only one to carry this sense going forward.


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I�m actually surprised that CC spend doesn�t count, or did I miss that? Most airlines have become CC companies. While I�ve thoroughly enjoyed being Gold on BA, it�s an easy transition to go back to all in on AA�s program. I�ve been able to hold PPro on AA through spend while earning GLD on BA via TP�s. I�ll have no issue getting back to EP on AA, but that will be at the expense of the BA J tickets that I�ve been loyal to. We all knew change was coming, just surprised CC spend wasn�t a part of it. Hoping I�m wrong. Cheers.

So you are sacrificing UK261 protection on the US-UK leg? Each to their own I guess.

I�ve seen a lot of posts about Lounges getting quieter, but there�s so much water to run under the bridge before then! Assuming the mass status downgrades won�t happen until April �26, so that�s still 16 months of business as usual�..

Yes, that and of course Zoom/Teams has put paid to a lot of the 'nice to do' trips. Other than the most essential travel, a lot of companies have heavily curtailed business travel compared to pre-Covid. Hence there seemed to be an understandable pivot by BA towards premium leisure as a target audience and seeming wanting to build or retain the client base through BAH promotions. The new Club seems to tear all that down as BA returns to focus on business travel....which arguably simply isn't there compared to even 10 years ago. And even if it was returning to the same numbers, I can tell you that a lot of people I know (corporate travellers) just don't rate BA in the same way that they used to. BA is no longer the default choice for many. As a few others have pointed out here, BA could easily get themselves tangled up in the belief that they have a good proposition (which they used to have, but don't have anymore) whereas their target audience have in many cases already left the programme and are spending elsewhere. From a personal perspective chopping a lot of the Gulf routes doesn't work for me at all but I'm more than happy with EK/EY/QR as alternatives. So it's a big gamble for BA from where I'm sitting as my spend with them would tend to be more leisure plus any TATL trips. By jacking up the Tier requirements without any pay-back I could be tempted to look elsewhere. So let's see what they do to ameliorate this over the next year or so.

I agree. BA won�t allow low occupancy. They�ll likely shrink lounge sizes or boost revenue by selling access through annual memberships (as US airlines do) or programs like Priority Pass.

For those saying it�s great news because you pay 20k a pop to fly in First to JFK once or twice a year, that only reflects poorly on you. Actual frequent flyers know you�re getting extorted by BA when you can find Club BAH Holidays for a third of the price including a 5* hotel for 2 ppl. And why do you need Gold in the first place as all the benefits are included in your fare? The new system doesn�t make it better for you, it makes it the same, all the while throwing all the actual frequent flyers under the bus. Oh and lounges are still going to be busy with fare payers!

But if you've no chance of achieving Silver or Gold between April '25 and end of March '26 why book BA if there are alternatives?

Bless the naive heart of those who believe lounges will stay as they are and just become less busy.

Edit: sry I realized I am just parroting what many have already said. Hard to keep up with the while thread. HNY everyone 😅

The more I think about this, the more I think about the wide stretching ramifications.

I�m not sure who is in charge of the advertising space and screens in TFW corridor before you enter the lounge however advertisers will have the figures showing how many people pass through here and will see your advert that your paying thousands for. With so few, potentially, using TFW going forwards, which advertiser in their right mind would continue shelling out to pay for advertising on these screens?

admittedly most of the stuff advertised are high value items but still.

of course, not any of our problem but this really is wide stretching across the entire business.

Indeed! I had considered this. Everyone will have a different story but we have about 10 various vouchers 241, GUF to burn over the next 18 months, so we�ll certainly be using them if not on revenue flights, as there seems no point at the moment aiming for much collecting from Apr �25 as you said, just to achieve bronze for what we used to get Gold for!

The comments above that BA's frequent flyer program has served it as a kind of insurance policy really resonate with me. As a gold member, I have continued flying with BA despite its degradation into a thoroughly mediocre airline. In fact, I have continued flying with BA despite its dirty airplanes, its truly horrible IT, its meltdowns in the face of any kind of weather, its wholesale termination of its most experienced (and generally most gracious) cabin crew, its excruciatingly slow customer service, and, of course, brunch-gate. So today is a kind of independence day for me. I know that the grass isn't always greener, but I know that it is greener often enough. There are plenty of airlines better than BA that charge roughly the same price for tickets, and I will give them my business instead. (At the same time, I have an enormous stash of Avios, and I will spend every last mile that my custom as earned me.)

I have no idea whether BA's decision is wise. I will guess that, in the short term, BA might be pleased with itself and see continued growth in profits. I will also predict that, in the long term, jettisoning the loyalty of its non-corporate travelers will be seen as short-sighted. Just as BA is focused on its bottom line, so are the corporations who fly them.

I work for a rather large British MNC based out of the City, and highly profitable to boot. I'd like to think our CEO is the type of person who would get a Premier card and that we'd be just the type of company BA wants to have onboard. That said, travel budgets and flights are so heavily scrutinised now that if there's a cheaper way to do it going via Upper Volta or Rhodesia, you take that. I've been told despite the rebates they offer us, BA is still never the cheapest and pretty much nobody in my company flies them. We've also got a policy of no gifts (very specifically mentioning FFP cards). I'm sure the sums have been done, but I can't help but feel they've missed a trick somewhere. There may not be as many fat cats out there as BA think, and even if there were, things never sit still. I just don't see "more travel" as being part of any company's master plan in this day of ESG compliance and awareness. Time will tell.

Has anyone been able to discover whether any this impacts the position of those of us fortunate enough to have already reached GGLfL?

Agree, and I think that�s happening with Avios. We�ll see how it shakes out.

With AA, they had already implemented the spend-based program so adding LPs to the mix actually made things easier for many and I think achieved the goal of pulling certain people further into the AA orbit. I remember when AA rolled out the spend requirement (EQDs) as a combo with miles / segments. There was pushback and some no longer retained EP etc., but they did it in a way that wasn�t so jarring.

I think that BA is getting too cute with this when factoring in the recent year-end changes. I equate it to what Delta did in 2024 and then had to walk changes back within a week due to the adverse reaction.