While it might appear there are disparities between programs, remember that not all FFs fly international routes as often as most of you on this Chat Site. I quite agree with Air New Zealand's lower levels because, as was pointed out, most flights in that country are very, very short. It would be impossible for someone who only does inter-island and maybe the odd flight to Australia to hit 100K, yet they are as loyal and frequent a flyer as those who are constantly crossing the Pacific or Atlantic.

Most of my flying is domestic, so to hit 100K would require me to fly full-fare between Edmonton and Toronto every week, and then two flights to Europe or one to Asia or Australia would still be required. If I flew discount fares on the domestic flights, my mileage is cut in half (unless I have an unlimited supply of upgrades, and incredible luck to be upgraded more than 75% of the time on the domestic flights). That's why segments have to be counted.

As well, a small carrier like TE wants to ensure that most of its countrymen/women fly it rather than another STAR partner, and so making their own program more attractive ensures UA or ANSETT don't syphon the more lucrative long-range international travel.

Yes, in a perfect world everything would be equal. But this is not a perfect world, and thank goodness for that.

(Do I sense a bit of Darwinism or Ayn Rand sneaking into the site?)

You comment, however, does give me leave to think I should switch to Air New Zealand's program as my primary STAR account, and have all my AC flights credited to it. Then I'd reach Gold/Elite with about the same mileage as it would take form me to reach Prestige here in Canada. Heck, I might even make TE's equivilent of Super Elite/1K.

By the way, it's always bothered me why UA call's their Premier Executive's 1K, when the symbol "k" stands for "thousand", and 1K is just "1,000"? Don't you have to fly 100,000 miles or 100 segments to qualify. 100,000 miles would be 100K, no?