I believe this is the key to why these program changes aren't going to achieve the desired results. For personal travel, most folks either choose the best fare for the dates and times they want to travel or choose the dates and times they will travel based on the lowest fare.

Corporations usually use travel departments or travel agencies to book, as has been pointed out. The largest ones get a corporate discount rate even on the least restricted fares (albeit still a higher rate than web fares and the like). The corporate rates and the ability to produce data that shows their travel purchasing muscle are the reasons large companies centralize bookings.

Add to this the fact that since the late 90's, companies have been reducing travel, allowing the purchase of restricted fares (part of the reason for the experiment with no residual value on restricted tickets?), requiring coach rather than business on longer and longer trips, etc. Airlines aren't the only corporations worried about their bottom lines.

My own flying pattern mirrors the changes in my company's policy. I fly international for business flights. Initially, I made several trips a year, all in business class. Gradually, the number of trips reduced. One year, they scheduled them back to back on a RTW ticket. They stopped buying refundable tickets for domestic and Latin America trips. Last year, I was cut back to two destinations, with other team members flying to those destinations to meet me. I am now only allowed to fly business class on flights 8 hours or longer. And this year, I've had no trips at all and it's looking like that will hold through calendar year end.

I've never been a top level flyer anyway as I never got to choose the airline for my business travel. I have gone from low tier status on two airlines to only having it on one. While I've concentrated my personal travel into keeping the one I still have, I may not make it this year. But if I do, this year I will be one of the "riff raff" elites due to the cutbacks my company has made in its travel policies and budget.

I suppose CO and DL wouldn't miss a flyer like me, since if my company wants to book a biz class ticket for one of my trips, they will only give me a choice of airlines if the price is equivalent. In the past, when they have, I've channelled those travel dollars to the airlines to which I've been loyal, just as I have with my personal travel dollars. In the future, I'll go with the most convenient schedule and fewest stops. Since both DL and CO cut benefits at the same time they made it more difficult to earn them when flying low fares, why should I even worry about status any more?