Originally Posted by
mitchmu
So, given these two choices, what's best? It seems to me that a business traveller with budget to fly paid C would choose option 2, since he or she gets the limited benefits of status and enjoys a good route network and doesn't have to suffer with E- or E+ anyway. This is clearly the most valuable customer to the airline too.
I am a business traveler and can still fly paid C international. You are missing in your comparison that to most destinations I can usually pick a superior foreign carrier to get to the same destination. I might need to use a US airline though to get to the domestic hub but since I get F then already for the feeder flight it is not a big deal.