The problem with soft landings is that they tend to tick off the elites who earned their status by flying.

I can understand if a longtime Plat has an extenuating circumstance, but I think that these situations should be handled on an individual basis. But why should someone who qualifies as a Plat for one year due to an extended project (but is no longer regularly flying CO) drop to Gold, when there are others who have earned Gold year after year?

I think that longtime loyalty should be rewarded, though, so perhaps CO could offer soft landings to elites who have 500K lifetime miles, or something along those lines.