Nicola Lomas spent years carefully collecting frequent-flyer points to protect her British Airways “gold” status as she flew dozens of times a year for work.

A consultant in the business travel industry, she enjoyed the perks. The queue jumps at check-in, access to lounges and priority boarding for gold members helped soothe the rigours of a hectic schedule.

So she was surprised to feel a sense of relief last year when the airline delivered the news all frequent flyers had dreaded. Lomas had been downgraded all the way to “blue”, the bottom tier, losing her benefits after progressively cutting work trips over the past few years.