So using a reductio ad absurdum argument, if I book three weeks in the Ritz Paris and a cheap economy return to CDG, I will earn gold through my BA holiday spend?

This seems a very ill-thought out change. You are literally inviting the wealthy to purchase status merely by routing their hotel spend through BA.

As for me, I have been gold since 2005 through purely personal spend. I have at times been on the verge of GGL. I have deliberately flown BA (or if not possible OW) for tier points to maintain status. As a result, I tend to use Avios only for upgrades or the annual BA 2for voucher. I fly a lot of CE and long haul first, so apart from the Gold lounges at LHR and LGW, BA aren�t giving me much for my status that is not included in the fare.

�20k is just not going to happen.

My 20th year of gold will be my last, unless I eventually hit GfL - I am still a bit short of that.

For me the upside is going to be spending my stash of avios and choosing flights in future on routing and value. I�ll get to see new airlines and new lounges.

Whatever we call it, BAEC is supposed to be a loyalty programme. When I joined in 1993, it was viewed as exclusive and business orientated, but it evolved to reward loyalty more than just being one of the in-crowd. And so history repeats itself�

BA are now rewarding business travellers on corporate contracts that require BA/OW flights. They have no choice and with year end rebates spend nothing like the nominal fare price on which their status is based.

Meanwhile, people like me, who determine where to spend their own money are lost business. Very clever.

Oh, and I am a bean counter and no decent business accountant would have claimed this decision made
commercial sense.

Ugh. I sent them a complaint, too, in which I said,

“I don’t need a generic response to this like the ones I’ve seen on X. I’ve worked in customer support and know they’re just standard templates. I just wanted to provide some perspective on your decision for when you evaluate its effects down the line.”

However, I do expect a generic template response is exactly what I’ll get. I’d honestly prefer not to get a reply at all. Especially because that response is clearly a pre-written template, which the individual agent can add to if they feel like it. As I said, I’ve worked in customer support (for a railway company here in the UK). We had templates for everything rather than us having to compose something and also to ensure consistency in the responses sent out. “We’re sorry you were affected by the tree on the line/fatality/signalling problem/points failure/heavy snowfall/sheep on the tracks/passenger taken ill. We understand this must have been very disappointing. We hope you will continue to travel with us, and we apologise again for having let you down on this occasion. Etc. Etc.”

BA is the same. It’s just copy/pasting and hoping that will appease us. It doesn’t appease me, of course. However, amongst other things in my letter, which I shan’t bore the forum with, I also wrote, “Kind regards, and a supportive hug to all those in customer support who have to try to defend what they had no part in to a horde of angry people.”

It is a thankless job. Thank God mine was just a secondment. I went back to my normal job a week after finishing training. Crap pay for having to defend decisions you had no part in and cannot influence. Spare a thought for the customer service agents these days. They’re working hard for a salary that wouldn’t get them anywhere near Bronze under the new TP rules…

Can UK/Europe get the credit card?

Ah well, Badnewsfairy was right. I'm sure someone can do better than I managed in 5 minutes but...... https://suno.com/song/f1eba939-bca4-...2-4bb55be26ca3

Are people really expecting personalized responses to hundreds or (thousands) of similar complaints about the same thing all being made at about the same time??

How many ways can BA word the same response?

Classic sorry, not sorry.

I QA serious complaint responses as part of my role, and I always delete that sort of thing..

Agreed, I did not bother, as they are equally not bothered.

nope.

probably not unless you do a lot of US domestic flying
For people like you who have access to cards that credit to AA it probably is easiest

Here in Poland I cannot get a BA card never mind an AA card

A very wealthy person can effectively buy Gold Guest List from scratch by flying to the Maldives and staying at one of the ultra luxury resorts that charge over �20k per night.

Zero to GGL in less than a week with only 1 return flight on BA metal. And the irony is that BA won't see much of the �65k spend, as most of that will go to the hotel.

Putting my Community Director hat on, I'm hugely impressed by the thoughtfulness and restraint so many people here have put into their posts which have clearly been made in good faith.

The impact on many people is considerable, in hassle terms if nothing else, and I think the most charitable thing I can say is that it's a pity not everyone can recognise that and have some empathy.

Quite, if you complaint, I suspect the idea would be merely to add to the tally of displeasure so that BAEC get a sense of magnitude, but surely, the point is not to get an answer, let alone a meaningful one?

We have booked around 50% of the old TPs necessary to renew GGLin 2025/26 but then the announcement came. As you say renewing GGL is not really plausible or sensible given the spend level BA has set. We have come to the same conclusion that walking away is the right thing to do. Living equidistant between LHR and LGW, we have lots of choices and will be exercising those choices rather than spending anymore money with BA particularly premium F/J long haul. We will still use BA for European flights if it makes sense.

Well if it doesn�t address personal concerns they might as well sack the customer service staff and rely on AI to give the answer

Off topic, but I am sure AI is already negatively impacting customer service headcount, or will be soon.