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British Airways Forced into Embarassing Climb Down On Controversial Changes to its Loyalty Program

British Airways Forced into Embarassing Climb Down On Controversial Changes to its Loyalty Program

a close up of a plane

British Airways has been forced into an embarrassing partial climbdown of controversial changes it is making to its loyalty program after the airline received highly critical feedback and lifelong frequent flyers vowed to move their business to rival carriers.

Bizarrely, despite publishing detailed guidelines on how flyers would now have to spend tens of thousands more pounds to earn elite status, British Airways now claims that unfounded ‘speculation’ was the root cause of customers’ anger over the changes as it announced a major backtrack.

Announced last December and set to take effect in April, British Airways plans to change its frequent flyer program into a revenue-based scheme in which only passengers who spend the most are rewarded with elite status.

To unlock BA’s Silver status in the rebranded British Airways Club, which includes perks like lounge access, free seat selection, checked baggage, and priority check-in, frequent flyers must spend £7,500 per year.

Meanwhile, access to more luxurious premium lounges, as well as first-class check-in at London Heathrow, as part of the Gold tier, will require a minimum annual spend of at least £20,000.

Or, at least, that was the plan. On Wednesday, BA’s chief commercial officer, Colm Lacy, said it was never the airline’s intention to make customers spend this much to earn elite status and that the surprise press release in December 2024 announcing the changes lacked all the details.

To calm angry frequent flyers, Lacy said British Airways was introducing a bonus tier point offer that would allow passengers to earn up to 550 additional tier points per flight.

This offer replaces an initial tier point bonus scheme that was marketed as a soft landing of sorts for frequent flyers who were close to achieving elite status. Rather than ending at the same time as the revenue-based earning takes effect, the extended offer will run all the way through to December 31, 2025.

“We’re confident that moving to this model is the right thing to do for our customers, but we acknowledge that we need to reassure them that there are now lots more ways to earn status,” Lacy said on Wednesday.

“We’re implementing a system that allows us to flex and adapt to respond to our customers’ needs, and the Bonus Tier Point campaign is a perfect example of this.”

Along with giving away a lot more bonus tier points, British Airways has also performed a U-turn on its decision to ditch a scheme in which passengers who fly a lot with the airline can earn Bronze or Silver status without a minimum spend requirement.

The airline will now allow passengers to unlock Bronze status with a minimum of 25 sectors flown, while Silver status will require 50 sectors. Unlike in the past, however, flights must be on a British Airways plane.

“We crunched our data, and it shows that under the new model, Bronze and Silver members can still re-qualify based on around the same number of average-priced standard fare flights as previously,” Lacy attempted to reassure.

“However, we’ve heard that our members wanted more clarity, certainty, and reassurance, so we’ve found a way to re-introduce earning by sector for flights with a BA flight number to support members who use British Airways’ flights to commute.” 

Lacy insists that the change to a revenue-based loyalty program is the right decision but at the same time, claims that the new program was always designed to “flex and adapt” to the needs of BA’s customers.

Responding to passengers who have sworn to abandon British Airways for rivals, the airline says they are worrying unnecessarily as the changes it is making to its loyalty program were never intended to reduce the number of elite flyers and won’t affect the vast majority of its members.

View Comments (5)
  • More BA BS many people have stopped listening given the reality of delays, IT meltdowns, cost cutting schemes and the absence of functional customer service channels

  • **”Hmmmm, based on our customer feedback, we’ve decided to change the way we allocate status cards.

    Upon reviewing customer feedback, we’re making a complete U-turn, as our previous statement was not based on customer input at all. BA apologizes for treating its customers unfairly and asks for forgiveness for being less than truthful.”**

  • Bad ideas often come from the higher up management in a company who don’t relate to the issues of the the more ordinary people. “The higher up you go the more out of touch they are”. This is a classic example of that. Now they are trying to talk it back like it never happened. LOL.

  • I was once Gold,, then long time Silver, but now Blue, retired with no real chance of improving my status. The positive stroke is that I now no longer need to be the loyal BA customer I was in trying to remain in Silver status, but free to go with better deals and more comfort on other airlines when I chose my flights. Loyalty is something that should cut both ways.

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