New here. I've been dirt on USAir hovering just below silver for a couple years. Platinum on Delta. For the last couple months forced to fly US from DCA as its only real option into Charlotte.

A couple weeks back I realize that the promotion they have going on will qualify me for preferred the next week. I also catch wind from a passenger that last summer while I was abroad they'd give you 90 days of silver status for a free trial. I'm about to make a few cross country trips and a decide hey, since US is my airline of choice for the foreseeable future, why not give them the opportunity to earn more of my business. So I call and ask if they'll give me preferred status - as they can see by already booked flights I'd earn it via their promotion the next week (and via normal rules 2 weeks after). And in return I'd book a couple CC flights on US.

Now, its no the slightest problem for me to take Delta. I'd prefer it - much much better airline IMHO with a real 1st class that I'd have a strong probability of being upgraded to. But I figured I'd give them an opportunity.

You know the rest I'm sure - they told me to go pound sand. No preferred status matching, no accelerating award under promotion, no matter how many flights you'd book.

The fun part is I decide to email this story to Parker. I've been a CEO and really value direct feedback, so I figured I'd extend the courtesy to whoever filters his email (and also assumed that they'd make the seemingly wiser choice of taking my business versus not).

I get a call a couple of days later from someone who wants to discuss my email. Funnily enough though, they're not going to do anything. They just want me to know that my message was received. And the guy who was tasked with this says yeah, this is a crazy decision and a crazy policy but there's nothing I can do.

I reminded me of when I did business in Russia in the early 90s.

Just thought I'd share.

PS (the Delta flights have been great so far with 100% success in upgrades to a real 1st class).