Originally Posted by
dtremit
I doubt there are a ton of low-revenue, high-segment flyers, but there are probably more low-revenue, high-mileage flyers. $15k for 100k miles is 15CPM, which is actually reasonably high. That would be $783 for a BOS-LAX round trip, for example; AA's walkup fare on that route is only $1,050.
That said, DL and UA have both set the 100k revenue bar at $10k -- which seems like a more reasonable threshold. If the airline isn't profiting enough to reward a $10k per year customer, there's probably something structurally wrong with fares.
United used to have a program a while back which gave someone elite status for buying a travel card. The value on the card was only valid for a year. And the status you were given was tagged to how much value was loaded onto the card. I want to say that top status was given to someone who purchased a $20K travel card. But I'm not certain of that figure. The problem I have with what DL and UA are doing (and probably the new AA as well) is that it shoots a hole in the benefits of being in a Global Alliance. Unless your ticket is purchased on UA or DL ticket stock, you don't get any EQD earnings. This is probably because of their IT systems' limitations. But that still doesn't make it any better. They really should just set a minimum spend period (for any elite level). Just as there is a minimum amount of segments (or miles) needed to be flown on the home carrier. Like a miniumum of xxx dollars needs to be on its own carrier in order to attain any elite status. And btw, DL's revenue bar for top status will be $12,500.