Originally Posted by entropy

Why 60 and not 50 as an "achievement"? I'd argue that a one-time unrestricted fare to HKG is more valuable to the company than 6 $300 transcon rt'd to get silver. ITs not like silver is worth that much.

Remember the program is a lot more about psychology than actual benefits. They want the next incremental level to be close enough to motivate people to fly. Tons of people are willing to do a run just to get silver. That's lots of revenue left on the table at little expense. They don't give silvers anything more than GM's with a credit card except the 25% bonus, and day-of-departure E+ (and the very occasional upgrade after everyone else got theirs) which doesn't amount to much at that level of flying.