My thoughts/summary on this:
• AC don’t want to have a middle/low tier FF program as this costs them more money than loyalty (their reckoning not mine)
• SE benefits for the time being are little changed
• They are becoming a LCC but with a premium economy cabin and (smaller) front cabin.
• They will keep tightening the screws on the benefits because they want to get rid of all of us and end up with planes full of rouge passengers. They are continuing to increase the cost of eUps until it’s the same price as a Z fare. More fool us for playing the game.
• If you’re not SE then you might as well not bother.
• Being SE after 2014 will likely be pretty dismal too. Me thinks I’ll shift my business in 2014.