mooper

I was relaying a mathematical fact, but perhaps I could have been more clear. The impact may only be relative *on the whole*. You can see this by imagining what would happen if DL announced that on Dec 31st, 11:59PM, they would double all 2009 MQMs in everyone's account, regardless of what time of the year they were earned. Because there would be no advantage to time-shifting activity, no one could gain a relative advantage. Despite a doubling "inflation" in the absolute quantities of MQMs, there would be no overall net change in competition for upgrades. There would, however, be a huge increase in the total amount of benefits (fee waivers and the like) doled out by DL.

Because, unlike in my hypothetical scenario, there is a time period involved, members may create a *relative* advantage or disadvantage for themselves by timing their activities to coincide more or less with the promo time period than their average peer.