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British Airways launched a revamped loyalty scheme this week without publishing full details of how travellers can earn points, confusing and irritating consumers.
The UK’s second-largest airline promised customers in December that they would be able to earn up to 2,500 “tier points” by spending money on their BA Premium Plus American Express cards — with “more details of this offer . . . announced closer to the launch date”.
But the new “British Airways Club” loyalty scheme was launched on Tuesday without any further information on how to earn tier points from Amex spending, sparking confusion among frequent flyers. Some took to social media to voice their complaints.
BA’s social media team responded on X to a customer asking for more information by sharing a promotional video for the new scheme from February of this year.
Rob Burgess, editor of frequent-flyer website Head for Points and a vocal critic of the scheme, said there were “a lot of frustrated BA and Amex cardholders who don’t know quite what they should be doing”, adding that the changes had been “very badly thought through”.
The airline told FT Money that more details on how to earn tier points from the BA Amex card would be “coming soon”.
BA followed in the footsteps of many of its rivals in December, announcing it would switch to a revenue-based loyalty programme, in which the the cost of flights or package holiday bookings would be rewarded with tier points. These unlock access to benefits including airport lounges and priority check-in, and were previously awarded based on the class of travel and the length of trips.
News of the changes had already caused much anger among BA’s loyal customer base — and the airline has backtracked on a small number of its original proposals. In recognition of the frustration, BA said in February that it would allow very frequent fliers to earn status based solely on the number of flights they had taken, irrespective of how much they spent.
Nevertheless, enthusiasts on Tuesday hosted a mock “funeral” for BA’s previous scheme at a pub in central London, with attendees asked to wear “funeral attire” or come dressed in Hawaiian shirts.
Ed Fry, one of the event’s organisers, said the new BA Club scheme was “a complete mess”. He said the new scheme, with its high thresholds to achieve BA’s “gold” status — which brings with it some of the top perks —was “completely out of reach”, even for many corporate travellers.
“It’s like the spell has lifted; personally I’ll be spending significantly less,” said Fry. “The spend is out for tender.”
Others responded positively to the changes, appreciative of a new framework that they feel will reduce the number of flyers in lounges, which have previously heaved with people as more travellers used the previous system to their advantage.
BA said it had “introduced more ways than ever to earn tier points” and added that it wanted to “reassure customers that retaining their status is achievable”.
People “love to hate the concept” of rewarding based on spend, said Gilbert Ott of frequent flyer website God Save the Points. But lots of airline loyalty programmes in the US have “done that very successfully”.
Ott added that BA’s loyalty scheme was “one of the best options in the world” and offered customers “a decent chance of getting rewards on things they want”.
BA said the changes to its loyalty programme were “based on extensive modelling of our customers’ behaviour and a lot of research into how this model works for other airlines around the world”. The airline said that “a large number of our customers” would benefit from the changes.
