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A guest BA post by The Rt Hon Nigel Evans, ex MP and Deputy Speaker of the Commons

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Rob writes: we very rarely accept guest articles on Head for Points. However, when politician Nigel Evans – who spent 32 years as MP for Ribble Valley and was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons until the last election – offered to write about the British Airways Executive Club changes, I was interested.

What makes Nigel’s piece relevant is that it shows that unhappiness with British Airways runs deep and that interest in the topics we cover on HfP goes far beyond the hardcore frequent flyer community.

As Nigel said to me:

“I was chair of a number of a few committees, and was a delegate to the Council of Europe which took me extensively around the world . Needless to say I am Gold for Life with BA and at one stage was Gold on all three alliances simultaneously.

Whilst I will be unaffected by the BA changes – other than a beneficiary from deserted lounges in 12 months times – I am incensed by the cavalier way in which BA is treating its loyalty members.”

Over to Nigel. I have edited his piece and any errors are probably mine:

Nigel Evans

“They say that no one is as deaf as the one who chooses not to hear. British Airways whispered its changes to its well established and well loved loyalty programme during the Christmas break. It came as an unwelcome gift which would have been best left unwrapped. One can only assume there was no focus group played out with current members of BA Executive Club which would have quickly put this plan out of its misery.

British Airways is changing its loyalty programme to reward money spent rather than frequency of flying. There are nuances to it, but in essence the cost of getting elite status with BA is going to cost a huge amount more, in some cases by a factor of eight or more.

My friends who have been blindly loyal to British Airways for decades are in deep shock. They weren’t over surprised about the new tier points being awarded on revenue but they were traumatised by the huge increases required to have their loyalty recognised. Many have said to me they cannot retain their current status in the new scheme and are simply surrendering their planned trips with BA rather than even try.

There are a lot of savvy fliers who have engineered their business and leisure flights around gaining tier recognition with British Airways. A former owner of an airline once told me that frequent fliers have been known to fly in the opposite direction of where they want to go simply to fly with their chosen alliance and earn recognition.

Nigel Evans writes about British Airways

I was recently at a conference in Hampshire and there was only one side discussion of any note – who would people be transferring their loyalty to and which scheme would better reward their loyalty.

One former diplomat told me he had approached Virgin Atlantic to see if it would status match his BA gold card. Not only did they say yes, but they have since officially rolled out their status match with a further incentive of a prize draw for five lucky loyalty refugees to win a million points.

Another British Airways loyalty orphan told me he was switching immediately to Flying Blue on the day that Air France KLM announced its £99 status match. It also appears that Flying Blue is going one better and giving top tier status quietly to Gold Guest List victims. This is the highest level in their scheme and will allow enhanced recognition with extended lounge access to eight of your fellow travellers.

Another savvy frequent flyer texted me yesterday relating to his take on the changes – “I’m done with them”. He is looking at Flying Blue and planning his next BA-free break.

I am now waiting for Star Alliance to smell the stench from the rotting corpse of the BA bombshell and announce a status match offer. The scene is reminiscent of vultures circling above ready to swoop on the remains of an animal dying from, in this case, self inflicted wounds.

I have no doubt that British Airways has thought through these changes – after all they hide behind members feedback as their justification for the new scheme. I have no doubt some members have complained about lounges being crowded or the aircraft boarding by group number being a bit like the rush through the doors at the Harrod’s New Year’s sale. I have no doubt that the new scheme will rectify these problems but not in the way BA has intended.

Another friend is going to China next month and had already embarked on his loyalty journey with oneworld via BA. He has now taken out Flying Blue membership and taken a tier run to Scandinavia, he has a flight booked in business to Paris and next month will fly with SkyTeam to Shanghai. He would most certainly have booked BA to get him closer to his beloved Gold status but feels that BA have shown him no loyalty and two can dance that tango.

BA faces a big decision. It can plough on with its current proposals which have been universally greeted with total disbelief by the majority of frequent flyers I speak to or they can hear the screeching handbreak turns from former loyal members who are heading to pastures and alliances new.

The one thing I have learnt from my days in business is that the customer is always right and that they also have a choice. Unless British Airways wakes up and smells the Union coffee brewing in their lounges they will – without a doubt – soon be receiving fewer complaints from their incredibly loyal Executive Club members about crowded lounges. It will, unfortunately, be for all the wrong reasons.”

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Comments (336)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Can2 says:
    20 Jan20 January 10:08

    Just saw a piece of news in Financial Times print version about the exodus from BAEC to Virgin.
    The article ends with “BA did not respond to requests for comment” :)))

    • Irons80 says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:14

      How can it be an exodus unless people have given up their membership of BA?
      And furthermore, how does anyone know if people have switched bookings or not – it will take months to find out. Smacks of a click-bait / PR article (which to be fair, is precisely what articles in papers mostly are…)

      • can2 says:
        20 Jan20 January 11:18

        Sure, too soon to say.
        Plus, we don’t even know yet if BA will do anything to counter it.
        BUT, if a news outlet FT put it on their pages, that says something.

    • Michael says:
      20 Jan20 January 21:14

      Although BA have 300ish flights a day from LHR while Virgin have less than 30 I think. Virgin also have Delta (in the same way as BA have AA) and AF/KLM/SAS (versus EI/IB and to a lesser extent Finnair). In a capacity controlled market I still think BA has the upper hand, but will probably lose yield as BAEC was propping up yields by reducing passengers’ price sensitivity.

  • Mark says:
    20 Jan20 January 10:09

    I’m afraid I agree. Seems a very odd choice of article for HfP to break its policy over.

    • Skywalker says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:52

      I suppose it’s just to:

      a) Illustrate that it’s not just ‘Average Joe’ and ‘Above Average Alex’ that will be/have been affected by the changes, and
      b) Demonstrate that even HNW and High Profile individuals are unhappy about the changes even though they can probably afford to meet the new Club criteria.

      So from that perspective, I think the article is interesting (even if I am not keen on how it has been written).

      We know that BA reads this site, and based on BA’s current direction of travel, it is most likely the views of the influential and the wealthy that BA is probably most interested in hearing at the moment.

  • ParselT says:
    20 Jan20 January 10:33

    One of the reasons that BA felt able to make these Executive Club changes is surely that they have a dominant working monopoly at LHR with over 50% of flights – and with Oneworld this approaches 60%.

    Perhaps it is high time that the Government/Transport Secretary asks for a full competition enquiry and reduce BA’s flight share below 40% (the definition of a dominant monopoly).

    • Rui N. says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:42

      It would be quite hard to confiscate slots from BA, likely not worth the trouble – even the air agreements with other countries have clauses against that, so BA would have multiple options to fight that.
      What the government absolutely needs to do is to stop the current slot rules if the 3rd runway ever goes ahead. Otherwise BA will get first dibs on all the new slots and will get to pick the first 50% of them. All for free!

      • memesweeper says:
        20 Jan20 January 10:52

        Assuming it is possible under international agreements, I’d like the government to look at taxing slots based on a percentage of their market value. Then we’ll see how profitable BA really is.

        • Rui N. says:
          20 Jan20 January 11:25

          Doubt it. They cannot even be sold, all those “sales” of LHR slots are all technically leases.
          But charging for the first time they are distributed is possible (if the UK law changes). IATA will claim it is illegal, but the European Commission has concluded a long time ago (1990s) that nothing should stop a Member State from charging for slots.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        20 Jan20 January 11:24

        One thing that needs to stop is awarding airlines new slots when they are leasing existing ones out.

        It will help on the margins but it’s something.

        Also I would claw back slots that are confiscated due to the 80/20 rule and not automatically put them out for bids. Use them to reduce, marginally, the number of flights and reduce the pressure during irrops.

      • Michael says:
        20 Jan20 January 21:16

        Make airlines apply for slots each year, or auction them annually. Effectively no “soft landings” for slots! It would allow a true valuation of slots and prevent hoarding, slot sitting and leasing.

  • NorthernLass says:
    20 Jan20 January 10:55

    Some harsh comments about Nigel Evans here. While this piece definitely comes across as OTT and a bit out of touch, he’s actually respected and well-liked in his former constituency – which he held on to for over 3 decades in a region generally a historic Labour stronghold.

    At the same time I am wondering if we’ll see more public figures “inspired” to exhort BA to change tack about the impending changes!

    • Mike Fish says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:34

      If Matt Goodwin (or Rob K. Henderson) was here he’d assign much of the HfP audience as the “Luxury Belief” class. So the comments are unsurprising (just like the BREXIT ones).

    • can2 says:
      20 Jan20 January 16:22

      Bring Jeremy Clarkson!

  • Lembit Opik says:
    20 Jan20 January 10:56

    Indeed, this is a first world matter. But I suggest those who dismiss the problems BA has caused its frequent flyers (and to itself) shouldn’t bother with websites like this. We’re a self-selecting community of enthusiasts who enjoy the flying experience and part of that is the status aspect. In this context, Nigel Evans’s comments are very significant. If BA seriously listens to its users, it will effect an urgent course-correction to a program change which is obviously tremendously disrespectful to its most loyal passenger base.

  • JohnG says:
    20 Jan20 January 11:02

    Just wanted to note that I liked the presence of this guest article; I wouldn’t want to see them become common but external perspectives are beneficial from time to time.

    In general I liked the article itself, although the language was at times a little too hyperbolic for my taste. I will however take exception to “The one thing I have learnt from my days in business is that the customer is always right and that they also have a choice.” anyone trotting out this mis-quoted nonsense.

    The original, and at least potentially valid, quote was restricted to matters of taste and it should be obvious to anyone that customers aren’t always right; if you asked customers they’d say they’d like to travel business, with luxury transfer on either end, for the price of economy (because why wouldn’t you want that…) so let’s see someone claim airlines should price that way because customers would like it.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:27

      Indeed customers do have choices but they aren’t always right.

      • JDB says:
        20 Jan20 January 11:41

        Well that’s the whole issue. The passenger generally wants the maximum benefits for the minimum cost and those that are paying a lot want some sort of exclusivity. BA/IAG/shareholders want something different re cost, so the trick is to strike a balance that keeps everyone reasonably happy.

  • Mark says:
    20 Jan20 January 11:02

    I’m pleased that BA have tightened its Executive Club membership requirements. It was far too diluted before.

    • LittleNick says:
      20 Jan20 January 13:47

      Whilst agreed it was a bit too generous before, they’ve gone far too much in the other direction. They didn’t need to do this but just up the old TP requirements to something like 500 for bronze, 1000 for silver and 2000 for gold and remove the Double TP Holiday offer. This would have been fairer

    • Gillydee says:
      20 Jan20 January 23:17

      Never really understood why both Silver and Gold required 4 flights on BA or IB metal. Upping Gold to 8 or 10 would have sorted some of the wheat from the chaff….

  • Thaliasilje says:
    20 Jan20 January 11:05

    Thanks Rob for deleting my comment raising some very relevant questions questions.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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