Never say never.... my silver status was renewed in 2023 with a grand total of 0 tier points

But should a loyalty system be fair, or should it drive irrational behaviour.

The original BAEC rationale is that it was a low cost way of binding in the bulk of mid range customers who produce the most aggregated absolute profit but who are not individually significant. �6k GGLs were a side effect rather than a feature.

The BAC rationale is to milk high spenders for incremental spend via a partner ecosystem. Automatic status for corporate road warriors is the side effect here, not the intention. Obviously picking up status via spend that happens anyway doesn�t do much for the bottom line.

Fairness has nothing to do with it and never did. It�s two alternate strategies to protect or generate incremental profit.

And as a PS, the fact that TP bonuses still exist and a credible TP earning ecosystem doesn�t tells us that the BAC vision isn�t working as planned. Yet, at least.

Generally when the game changes it�s sensible to evaluate whether to change the way you play it or to stop playing. I was expecting the change since TP years were aligned and accelerated GfL earning, my reading is I have no benefit in continuing to play, but I am using residual benefits like gufs and avios while I can.

My flying patterns haven't changed one bit. What has changed is that I now credit all One World flying to Finnair, even though I would have requalified for BA Gold this year. I reached Finnair Platinum (OWE) for around 80% of the cost of doing it on BA and next year it will be a lower percentage due to the Platinum bonuses for the full year. I could see the writing on the wall for future years as my business travel will likely reduce. The other Finnair benefit that is particularly attractive is being able to gift OWS status, this keeps someone very near and dear to me with seat assignments and lounge access when we travel separately.

5 (earned) tier points this year says it all, as former Gold and now Silver.

Just finished burning through my Avios stack and will be booking whichever airline/alliance is most convenient.

It actually feels freeing to be honest

Recently moved to the UK about just over a year ago. Decided to start chasing loyalty earlier this year.

From Apr onwards have had two trips so far with BA. LHR-LCA Y return as part of BAH booking and EDI-LHR-OTP J return. These have earned me 3349 nTPs which would have been 320 oTPs on the previous scheme.

For the moment just trying to get as many bonus nTPs flying with CE connections and booking my trips as BA holidays. Might start looking at a different airline loyalty scheme next year/the year after.

Take a look at Matt's Planet on Youtube for analysis of different OW airlines loyalty programmes as alternatives to BAC. I guess which one you ultimately choose to pursue will depend on your future flight plans. Good luck with it.

Just to put this into perspective if both your trips were 5 Nights and booked under the former BAH Double Tier Points regime you would have earnt up to 640 points for the above two vacations.

This would have seen you crash through the requirement for Silver Membership at 600 Tier Points with just 2 bookings under your belt.

SAS is in Skyteam now, not Star Alliance.

I'm still enjoying the novelty of trying other airlines, although, having flown almost exclusively with BA and AA for the best part of a decade, I've also found it a little unsettling getting used to different processes and procedures.

I just completed a transatlantic trip with Aer Lingus. Onboard service was perfectly good, seeming a lot more relaxed than BA's, and the food was excellent. I'd be happy to fly with them again.

I positioned to/from Dublin with BA (reward flight). Boarding was messy, with both flights being almost 100% full and the gate agents having allowed passengers to board with too many bags. I was disturbed from my reading by having a bottle of water shoved between my face and my book, like something Pam Ann might do. I really don't know why BA can't get this little stuff right.

To add to my previous point, I have just booked a long weekend in TPE on TG J for SWMBO and I for next weekend - in previous times, that would naturally have gone to CX via HK, but not anymore. This also nets me my missing 72 miles (yes, that annoyingly little ) requalification for TG *G as well, after they matched me as part of SAS leaving for ScrapTeam last year

Since I want to enjoy my last year as GGL, I still fly with BA and relatively easily hit 20,000 nTPs. I actually might be able to do 40,000 nTPs in total, but the hardest part is 80% of BA marketed flights. I probably let GGL go, and become an occasional OW flyer.

That's really it, isn't it - it's a bit unsettling getting used to different processes and procedures. I flew ET CAI-ADD-KUL and back, and I felt adrift as I wasn't flying oneworld and was thus out of my comfort zone, but it all worked like clockwork and I found some things about ET and ADD that are better than BA (slippers in business class for one, and ADD has business class IMMIGRATION DESKS inbound and outbound so the queues are non-existent there - loved that!).

Same as you, I've now booked to fly Aer Lingus to Canc�n, whereas previously I would have gone BA/AS or BA/AA if I had to to keep my BA status. Crediting to AerClub so I'll be Platinum once that trip is over. I've previously never had status with EI (apart from a year I received when they status matched their Silver tier to lowly BMI Blue - perhaps the most unusual match to ever appear) and now I'll be up among the top echelons of power there haha!

Given that AY seems to now be the program of choice (for many here) to credit BA flights to, can I ask a practical question - how best to switch over from BA to AY in the reservation once I've done OLCI and have my BP? As I'm aware that the online routes with other OW carriers seem to have been shut down.

I may have missed it, but is there a customer service desk at the Flounge (or other J lounges) at LHR/LGW where this can easily be done? Or is phoning the Gold line (silver line from next April...) better?

Just gauging what people are finding is the easiest route...