Originally Posted by
Eastbay1K
This "overentitled elite" has spent six figures over his lifetime at this airline. I know some people spend this in a year, but all but about 20K miles of this have been out of my own pocket. This, plus the people that have flown UA because of me, have absolutely no significance for this management.
This year, I have 0 EQMs, and 0 reserved. I've already flown about 30K miles on a mix on non *A airlines. I already have another 40K booked on non *A airlines. Some of the trips are in the paid J cabin. 26 years of loyalty, the last 20 of which had status, mean absolutely nothing - or worse, it is a negative.
For a trip where I might need 3 heavy bags of luggage and aren't otherwise buying a premium cabin fare elsewhere, I might consider you. Otherwise, the playing field for any individual trip is just about even, or less.
I understand your feelings and I agree with them.
Then again, the way the CO business model works, not only don't they need you to spend all that money, they would actually prefer you didn't.
I know that sounds very strange, but the fact is they would rather sell those same seats you bought to a large group of kettles, all of whom would pay the same fare as you, expect no perks in return (no free upgrades, no dedicated CS, no free checked bags) and also need to pay cash for any supplemental service (flight change fee, SDC fee, checked bag fee, E+ buy-up fee, etc.)
Again, I'm not saying they are right. In actuality, the kettle, by definition, is less loyal and thus more fickle. He can fly UA one day, then WN the next, and B6 another.
The fact is these "business models" are really more based on gut feelings than actual hard data. There is no way to definitively verify if a 1K is a drain or an asset to the bottom line, because of the monstrous complexity of the airline pricing, and because it's essentially impossible to enact two business models simultaneously.
So each carrier does what they believe is right. In my case, DL has been taking very good care of me as a lowly silver, so that's where virtually all my business has gone the past couple of years.