That's exactly it, a lot of us are QP members specifically for the reason of BA lounge access, 'cause a lot of us travel to Europe extensively. I make it a choice to chose a BA flight wherever possible both in Europe and southern Africa because of that lounge access. There is a 1:1 correlation between me flying BA and buying QP. I hardly fly domestic at all.
Further to that, there is incentive to chose a Y OWE (LONE4?) on the basis of QP, not everyone can afford a DONE4, in fact I would assume there are MORE QP LONE4 buyers than non-QP DONE4 buyers. And I bet those LONE4 intineraries are constructed in such a way to use BA ports with lounges wherever possible. So when there ain't no more BA lounge access (assuming a worldwide Galleries rollout), a LONE4 doesn't seem as attractive as it once was.
Thirdly, strictly from a personal point of view, many years ago back in London I recommended QP Life to colleagues as being a good deal, one of them went ahead with it, because when you're living in London obviously the card holds up on its own solely for BA access. Now when this colleague finds out (and I haven't said anything) they're going to be mightlily angry with me to find out they've only had 10 or so years out of their 'lifetime' $3800 investment.
When I read many of the posts it seems that so many people regard it as a minor inconvenience, but I guarantee there are many microcosms of QP holders around the globe, many of them Life members, that haven't heard about this yet at all (for example, how much % of 100% QP Life people read this forum - many are seniors as well I bet). So I sense this board's weight is stacked in favour of many frequent flyer Gold+ holders anyway, not truly representative of the entire mass of people that stand to be affected.
What I pity most is the QP Senior Life couples, taking their Euro vacation that they have so meticulously planned, with the Mercedes hire car booked, perhaps with the Premium Economy tickets in hand, finally looking forward to using their card after a few years of non-travel, with 10 BA flights booked to and fro European destinations all via LHR, finally landing at LHR and getting to the lounge desk only to have their holiday trampled on and having to sit with the masses. 10 BA flights to go, hugging each other, thinking "what have we done". That's just one of the many QP microcosm stories around the globe I can imagine happening right now, and it's gutwrenching. I don't have particular empathy for seniors but many of us probably have an older parent or relative enjoying their retirement that we wouldn't want such a thing happen to, I'm sure.
Anyway, I'm optimistic all will be resolved, as no news is probably good news, but yeah, my heart really does go out to the poor "QP souls" who are about to go through the revolving door of T5. Young, old, families, singles, rich, poor, the arrogant, the humble .. they're all going to be humiliated in some way.
