In 2002, after 9/11 combined with the dot.com crash (and over 10 years ago), my flying dropped to "merely" gold level. I remember getting a call from Delta, along with a couple of e-mails, asking "what happened" so they _can_ do the data mining if they need to. Of course it was a different time and certainly a different Delta back then.

Today, they are filling the planes more than ever, so if the OP drops out they have another body to fill the seat. If the situation changes and overall traffic drops, I'm sure they'll take action.