Nearly Two Thirds of British Airways Customers Say They Think Less of ‘Worlds Favorite Airline’ Following Controversial Loyalty Program Changes

The damage that finance bigwigs at what was once the ‘world’s favorite airline’ have caused to the British Airways brand is becoming increasingly clear after a poll commissioned by the embattled airline revealed that nearly two-thirds of passengers think less of BA following controversial changes to its loyalty program and other cost-cutting initiatives.

The survey of nearly 1,000 high-spending frequent flyers found that 62% of them said their feeling towards British Airways had declined in the last three months – the same period in which BA told frequent flyers that they must spend £20,000 per year just to get access to dilapidated and overcrowded airport lounges.

Such terrible polling will no doubt have senior British Airways managers questioning whether they have taken recent cost-cutting initiatives too far, and it will be interesting to see whether BA can bring itself to apologize to its disgruntled customers.

The survey was commissioned by BA’s secretive internal Future Labs program and, unusually, the airline decided to release some of the headline results to participants.

The pollsters concluded that recent changes British Airways has made to its frequent flyer loyalty club have “made you feel disappointed and underappreciated, which in turn has many of you questioning your loyalty to British Airways.”

In an unusually transparent summary, the pollsters continued: “You’d like to see British Airways place greater emphasis on rewarding customer loyalty, but also to focus on delivering a high quality and reliable experience.”

Along with the 62% drop in sentiment, nearly half of the passengers who took part in the survey also said that they felt disappointed towards British Airways.

Earlier this month, British Airways was forced into an embarrassing partial climbdown on some of the changes it was making to its British Airways Club, although senior managers insisted that customer anger was simply down to unfounded speculation.

From April, the loyalty program is set to switch to a revenue-based system in which loyalty is judged primarily on how much money passengers spend with the airline.

In December 2024, British Airways placed arbitrary figures on how much it would cost to unlock elite status, with £7,500 enough to achieve Silver status and £20,000 required to earn the coveted Gold card status.

In an attempt to soothe fraying tempers, the airline said earlier this month that it was never its intention to actually make frequent flyers spend this money and that bonus offers would become a regular feature of the club.

As well as making a partial reversal of its frequent flyer club changes, the airline has also been forced to almost completely backtrack on cuts its made to its Club World business class catering.

Last autumn, British Airways decided to start serving cheaper breakfast-style meals on all departures up to 11:30 am, although, in reality, that meant that passengers were being made to eat dishes like eggs and pancakes at what would normally be considered lunchtime.

At the same time, passengers on late-night long-haul flights up to 11 and 12 hours in duration were only being offered light bite snacks like paninis and soup.

The airline initially defended the blatant cost-cutting exercise and said the new menus had been inspired by customer feedback. As managers quietly reversed the changes, the airline suggested that customer preferences had suddenly changed.