Originally Posted by
Often1
I think that's what I said !
Higher fare paid gets you a better opportunity vs. merely flying a lot. Needless to say, flying a lot and paying hire fares gets you the top of the heap = GS.
This is not a new concept. For as long as I can remember, UA had EQM bonuses for B and higher fares. So, the idea that you could acquire miles and status with fewer, higher-yielding flights is well established and it's an option we've had for a long time. This N fare thing is just an extension of the same notion in the opposite direction.
Interesting how the CO apologists like to frame this as a case where UA was leaving money on the table and CO is now whipping them into shape with fiscal discipline when, in fact, UA always rewarded high value behavior and the change we're seeing now is an incentive for lower value behavior. Combine with TODs for kettles and merging of "all elites into one" and, in fact, all the changes I've seen from the CO regime are pushing UA down the value chain, not up the chain.
Before all this crap started, I'd sometimes make a choice to buy a B fare on a long international trip simply because I didn't want to fly more BIS miles to qualify for status and wanted to better SWU odds. Now, my biggest incentive is to walk away and take AA up on their Exp match.