Originally Posted by
BoeingBoy
I've said it several times over the last several years - eventually the legacies will reward the profitability of a passenger. The systems probably can't do it now, but whether miles/segment or spend both are just very rough proxies for profitability.
You could probably just correlate fare class to margin. The cheapest fare classes just would never be offered on non-competitive, non-stop flights. AA already *sort* of has that kind of system in place with EQPs, though the way they have it structured is a bit bizarre.
They'll have to walk a bit of a perceptual tightrope, though; I think margin-based systems can be palatable if they're cast as "fast tracks" or "accelerators," but if they start to look like "partial credit," there's going to be backlash.
As others have mentioned, a huge number of business travelers are required to book the lowest available fare; airlines create a loyalty issue when they offer low fares but then tell those buying them that they're not good enough to earn miles or elite status. It reads as the airline punishing a loyal customer for something entirely outside the customer's control. In a sense, offering deep discount fares to business travelers works against the interests of both the airline and the passenger; the latter usually isn't too concerned about what the precise fare is, but needs to book the cheapest one offered.