Originally Posted by
payam81
Gold level is only 50'000 miles. Every Tom, Dick and Harry can be a Gold so it's not that big of a deal.
Originally Posted by
eightblack
And no, not every Tom, Dick & Harry can be a Gold. 50,000 tier miles still means you either need to spend the money in J or F or do the yards in Y. Grab any manifest in SIN, MEL, SYD, AKL etc and you will note that on a 777-300 for example, not every pax has status. Far from it in fact.
I agree with eightblack on this. Most "normal" people travel long haul once, at most twice, a year on vacation. Some regional travel if they are from the region (think S Asians in Dubai or SE Asians in Singapore etc). Yes, with fares going down, it has increased people's affordability to take these long haul flights, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are taking more flights.
That leaves a small number of people who travel either very frequently or very long distances for personal reasons (I do 4-5 a year and think that's a lot), or those doing it as part of their employment. And if you're doing it for work, you shouldn't be sitting in Y anyway, and certainly shouldn't be complaining about there being too many status pax. (just IMO of course).