e problem is all those "perks" are a benefit only for more flying. Something of a vicious cycle. You get status by flying more so you can get things while flying more. Add to that the fact that many of those perks are now for sale to anyone. So the question is if instead of being loyal to UA, you had purchased tickets based on price. Would savings on fares offset the savings derived from these perks? For frequent business flyers whose company foots the bill, probably not. But for those independents, or part time leisure flyers, I wonder if the costs actually work out on paper.

Of course they wouldn't! But based on the well known fact that 88% of statistics are made up on the spot, I'll have you know that 92.9% of top tier elites are travelling 96.2% of their revenue tickets on the company dime- so they don't care too much (within reason) about the cost of tickets on different airlines- they just wanna sit in J when their company policy will only pay Y!

Sorry to call a spade a spade, but personal gain combating company policy is the major driving factor for the success of ALL FF programmes...