I will go along with that. I think, for the long term, U.S. based airlines need to do a lot more than merely keep their Elites happy, especially, when you can become a plat by flying 25000 miles and triple EQMs. They need to pay attention to their service, in coach, as well as business class, if they want to compete with foreign airlines, which is all together a different issue and OT. Revenue from economy class, even on international flights, far exceeds that from business class, although not on an individual ticket basis.

Good service is far better business model than signing up new elites and than give crappy service. Cell phone companies follow this defective model of "Get new customers, keep them captive and give crappy service".