British Airways has come in for criticism for making changes to its BA Executive Club loyalty scheme from next month.
Rob Burgess, founder of corporate travel loyalty site Head for Points, warned changes to the scheme from April would “decimate the premium ranks” of Executive Club cardholders.
Speaking at the Corporate Travel Summit of Business Travel Association (BTA) and Advantage Global Business Travel members last week, Burgess explained: “From April 1, the structure [of the scheme] will be based on what you spend with BA.
“It stops being a loyalty scheme and becomes a recognition scheme for big spenders. Most people who have elite status will lose it on April 1, 2026.”
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The changed structure will apply to new scheme members from April and to all members from April 2026.
Burgess argued: “People fly with BA not because it’s a great airline but because they get [executive club] ‘status’ if they fly long haul a lot, and it makes the BA product more acceptable.”
He warned corporate travel managers that from April 1 “travellers will try to spend as much as they can.
“They’ll book late because it’s most expensive, [whereas] with the current system, travellers would take the cheapest flight with multiple sectors because loyalty status is based on the number of flights.”
Burgess explained: “The point of status is to use it when flying on holiday. There is a lot of crap involved in business travel. It’s not glamourous to get up at 4am for a flight. Loyalty schemes are part of the trade-off for that.”
But he noted BA is not alone in making changes to its Executive Club scheme, saying: “A lot of loyalty programmes are looking at how to reduce their exposure without pissing off customers.”