Originally Posted by
Benjh
Thank you Scott for such incredible communication! ^^^
I'm in a very different group that most of you, I'm an elite (silver) passenger qualifying purely on leisure travels, and #4, which is so great for corporate travel, changes a lot of things for me:
It looks like there's gonna be a big increase in "I'm elite and I didn't know it" leisure pax, families booking vacations through expedia and orbitz, and therefore more and more silver elites. This in addition to the double EQM promo which helped things go in the same direction (albeit not for the same kind of pax).
So now we get maybe twice as many silvers (or more?), while in the same time Gold is becoming more and more rewarding (being *A gold). The gap between silver and gold is increasing, and the number of reasons to qualify for Gold as well. I'm finally making Gold next month (yes, only on leisure, and mainly with cheap fares bought on co.com), so I'm... mmm... golden

Even if they do accidentally qualify for Silver: You'll be Gold, so what do you care?