Originally Posted by
ColoBill1
...it's a rare flight I have flown on for quite some time that has been fully booked. I will then switch to start chipping away at the substantial stash of award miles I've accumulated, which is sufficient for my wife and I to exclusively enjoy "free" domestic and international travel for many years to come.
What would help a TON would be data. What is the % of flights that go out with more than 1-2 seats empty (ColoBill's experience has not been the case for me on the 65+ flights I have taken this year)? What is the % of flyers that will do what ColoBill will do (and that have the miles banked to do so)? How closely do FTers approximate the mean of the majority of UA flyers? If all of your threats are so individually specialized and "case exceptions" then threats will mean nothing. UA will say "who cares?". If however the "typical" UACO flyer will indeed leave en masse when E+ goes away, then we have something. We need data!
How does one get a sample of the typical flyer, outside of places like FT which are biased towards interested (and connected) fliers? Most of my professional colleagues, for example have not heard of FT and really don't care much about any of the details discussed on these boards. But clearly there is power in FT (viz, those that have successfully lobbied for meaningful change), so let's have some science (data) to wield as we continue to agitate.
GRRR