Bealine - The BA management are definitely arrogant, the staff may not be, but at the end of the day it's what your customer's think that counts and BA is service company.
BA has to consider whether it wants to keep it's loyal PAX, and many of regular PAX are very loyal - me included, or become an English version of Ryanair with some Frills.
When I lived in Nigeria I always wanted to fly BA simply because there was always a sense of relief about being in a civilised environment once again. The same today I always prefer to leave Tel Aviv with BA rather than El Al, Lufthansa, KLM or Air France, not for the same reasons though. I also realise that BA has to stay in business in what is becoming a cut throat environment - it's a fine balance.
MarkD - nice story, maybe one day my upgrade will come true !!