Originally Posted by
Grouchy
"While airlines do not disclose how many people are in each elite tier, Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst at the consulting firm Hudson Crossing, said about 3 to 4 percent of a carrier’s frequent-flier members had elite status. Delta and United each have 90 million frequent fliers, and American has 69 million, which means anywhere from two million to four million elites a program (though the number may be higher)."
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The initial topic was not about elites, but about passengers who do not have a FF number AT ALL, therefore do not collect any miles whatsoever.