Originally Posted by
172pilot
It's probably the other way around. You have to remember that most flyers are not FF. Therefore they are already shopping around for the cheapest fare. Most corporations require the cheapest fare, regardless of airline. The airlines are now changing to reflect this reality. For those of us who are actually loyal we suffer. Ask yourself this - for personal travel would you pay a latitude fare? Probably not. Infact would you fly AC if there was a *A flight that was cheaper? Probably not. If a non *A flight was considerably cheaper >25% would you consider flying them even if you didn't get any miles? Probably depending on distance or location. This is the reality for most travelers and one that the airlines must deal with. People don't value in flight service and speak with their wallets and then complain about the service afterwards.
On the other hand, having multiple thousand people spending on the order of $30k+ a year on their product, that's nothing to sneeze at. For me, given the way that status still holds right now, I would still pay for an AC flight (assuming I didn't do it on points) if only because of the better than not chance of an upgrade.