Mark

Many will drop down a tier. Another 100,000 may status match out to try a new airline. But the real risk is when elites give up and start flying based on price, network or something other than loyalty benefits. You see once flyers try a new airline they realised that intra Europe the seats are identical on every career, lounges are mostly the same and if you pay for all the upsells with a low cost carrier, you're getting more and paying less. The risk is when flyers disconnect from 'premium' loyalty, because they rarely go back. This is what has helped fuel the cost of low cost carriers... bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

SkyTeam Elite Status Match opportunity using Air Canada, WestJet or even hotel elite status! Perfect for those flying on Air France or KLM thanks to the 25% bonus from Amex. Learn more here: blog.rewardscanada.ca/elite-status/v…

@JTGenter Neither had a genuine local flavour. Sad to see sites shut down but it highlights the importance of understanding what makes things tick locally

NerdWallet UK just shut down. This comes a few years after TPG UK failed. Must be a tough market.

If you hold ITA Volare elite status, this might be your last chance to get Lufthansa Miles & More status through a match. lufthansa.statusmatch.com

NEW: Get SAS status for 23 months by matching your BA status share.google/5sLYqPSyMxEWI8…

The Status Cliff is real and the real loser in this may be other oneworld airlines. When BA downgrades masses of members next month, those same members will also stop flying oneworld carriers. BA might not see a problem, but for other airlines, alliance traffic is the reason they are in the alliance! The downgrade tsunami is going to hit more than just BA share.google/HUJ0g0R9wBA6wT…

British Airways Club members can now get SAS Elite status that is valid for up to 23 months (depending on when your membership year ends). sas.statusmatch.com

Happy International Women's Day

We have data on 100,000's of downgraded airline/hotel elites globally. The fall from top-tier -> mid-tier hits members harder than mid-tier -> low-tier. A straight-up free year of Diamond may look generous, but the business case is that if Hilton doesn't offer something, then up to 50% of those about to drop to Gold (or lower) will give up on Hilton altogether. Add to that, given how easy it is to get Hotel status with another brand, those ex-Diamonds are likely better off switching it up with another brand, especially if they're in North America.

The top bidder paid ~$435k USD for 20yrs of Emirates Platinum Status (whilst obviously supporting a great cause). emirat.es/qpuQAL

@afneil My estimates are that over 20,000 BA status holders have taken up status with a new airline to try it out. AFKLM published data on their recent status match data that shows somewhere around $20-$30M of high-margin revenue shifted away from BA and to AFKLM over a few months.

@afneil @afneil my co runs Status Match for 30+ of the worlds largest airline brands. Many airlines, including AF/KLM and LH will match your status to lure you over to try a new airline...

The new BA tier points structure sets impossible hurdles even for frequent flyers regularly using business or first. I have always planned my extensive and expensive global travel through London to use BA. These days are over. I will now use whatever airline is most convenient and competitive. It will make travel planning easier. I can make more use of other airlines whose business and first seats are far superior to BA. Hello Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, Etihad etc. I have BA gold for life so it no longer matters how much I use BA. I also have Group 0 status which is meant to allow priority boarding. But, like yesterday in Nice they could not even be bothered to call it. Same in London for plane to NYC. BA can’t even organise an orderly queue at the gate these days , something you’d think would come naturally to a British airline given the Brit propensity to queue. BA now run by numpties who put no value on long-standing, big-spending loyal customers, of which I’ve been one for 55 years!! They can’t even get the little things right. I flew London-NYC yesterday in First. WiFi meant to be free and I needed it for work. But free wifi didn’t work. So I had to pay for it. The lovely crew embarrassed by the poor service. I remember when my friend John King was the boss how proud the crews were to work for BA. Long gone. Crews are ashamed. No idea who runs BA these days. But he/she clearly useless. They’ve inherited the dead hand and cheapskate service of Willie Walsh, whose inability to determine what quality service meant began the long-running decline. He really was useless. Crew moral is very low as a result. Passengers see it. Good crew people, badly led. They lost any pride on working for what was once ‘the world’s favourite airline’ — then a matter of pride for staff and country and passengers. Now BA is just another middling airline over charging over the odds for a level of service barely above the cheaper budget airlines. A business model with suicide written all over it. @British_Airways

BA elite status holders get more love... from Lufthansa headforpoints.com/2026/02/02/bri…

Last year, BA lost around 20,000 tier members because of the changes, which directly hit their yield and rask. This year, prior to the mass elite exodus I'm predicting another 50,000 to leave. This will cost BA, their oneworld partners and Amex somewhere in the range of $1B+ over the next year. Loyalty is serious business and other airlines know this. headforpoints.com/2025/09/25/do-…

@afneil @British_Airways Yup Andrew. Same here. It just became too difficult to keep Gold with the new tier levels. My travels haven’t gone down, they moved the goal posts. BUT Not sure BA are bothered at least they don’t seem to be.

A case study in how @British_Airways, by setting impossibly high tier point hurdles, is going to lose a lot of money/big paying customers. Planning my next trip to NYC in Spring. Normally I’d do business Nice-London on BA, return first class London-NYC-London and business London-Nice, fitting in a few working days in London there and back. All up the fares would come to around £5,000 for flights in second half of April. A lot of money — especially since it comes out of my pocket. Nobody picks up my expenses. But at my age I like to travel in comfort. And I like the BA crews. However now that the tier point hurdle is too high for renewing guest list status for all but perpetual travellers, why bother planning a schedule round BA flights? I’ve booked Nice-NYC-Nice first class return on Delta for just over €3,000. No brainer, really. Direct flight, almost half the price. And @British_Airways will lose £5,000. Plus much more if this now becomes my regular NYC schedule. I can’t tell you the number of people I know now doing similar flight schedule planning which simply removes BA from the planning, when it used to be at the centre. And, yes, I know it’s most definitely a first-world problem! But BA makes most of its money from passengers flying first/business. With fewer of us the fares of premium/economy passengers will rise. Well done @British_Airways. How to stuff loyal, high-paying customers of longstanding for no good reason whatsoever. Hi @Delta. Thanks for reserving me seat 1A both ways! Can’t wait.

@afneil @British_Airways Match your status to AFLM and keep top tier benefits: flyingblue.statusmatch.com or even with Lufthasa at lufthansa.statusmatch.com Other airlines smell blood in the water and would love your business

737 bathrooms are the best

Last year, AFKLM published that 4000 of BAs top flyers booked 17,500 new flights on Air France/KLM, mostly in premium cabins after doing a Status Match because of BAs programs changes. The Status Match is back, and it seems the timing is perfect for flyers. British Airways Faces Elite Flyer Backlash After Andrew Neil’s Public Outburst - Aviation A2Z share.google/YLAlGRE9mCXaUo…

IT’S BACK: Get a KLM / Air France Flying Blue match from your British Airways status headforpoints.com/2026/01/14/fly…

The brutal reality of points & miles by @Geobreezetravel My favourite brutal truth is: If you can't pay off your credit card and your financial foundation isn't solid, do not play the points-and-miles game. Get your life in order first. Focus on making money - the points & miles will naturally and easily flow in after that. youtube.com/watch?v=1cwxgd…

Elite status drives rationally irrational behavior for airlines. Bet this guy over spends in 2026. "How a $6 Flight to Nowhere Scored Me Lounge Access For a Year" share.google/tXNcQ8K43J94oh…