Firstly, don't get me totally wrong. I have no wish to see BA go under or whatever. I would rather fly them than an American carrier any day. What I do wish is that BA stop being so damned arrogant and sneering down it's nose at anyone paying less than full premium fare. It doesn't sit easily with a £200m loss.
Your comment "but loyalty schemes work both ways. You show the loyalty first, then we reward you" just highlights the attitude problem at BA. Businesses need to earn loyalty by satisfying customers as well as rewarding loyalty from loyal customers. It's a TWO WAY thing!!
(And please stop assuming that just because a company is cutting it's cloth to suit the current tough climate (i.e. economy rather than club) that it will automatically go for the cheapest possible, non-refundable ticket. We still need some flexibility)
Rule 1 of marketing is to find out what people want and give it to them. (at a profit of course).
If you are only interested in targetting resources at your biggest customers who "fly much, much more than eight transatlantics in a few months" then great. But you shouldn't wonder why all of us 'less significant customers' don't then fly BA. And that I think is why BA is not the world player it ought to, and should, be.
Oh and in the past few months we've also done trips round the Far East, Middle East, Africa, probably a couple of dozen to Europe etc etc. Can't remember any of them being on BA. Not bad for a team of three.
As things pick up we will be able to go back to booking and paying for premium seats. I don't control a large company travel budget but I do have control of who I fly with, as do my colleagues. We will certainly remember which airlines did what for us. And whose ff programmes have been slowly accumulating, if at a lower rate than normal. And we will continue flying with them. As we have both said, loyalty is a two way thing!