Originally Posted by
BoeingBoy
The BTS just gives conclusions unless you want to dig into the extremely large 10k% ticket sample databases. No airline is cheapest or most expensive all the time, based on actual fares paid between a city pair for a given period - monthly IIRC.
The BTS numbers conclude that elites in the main aren't often paying even a minimum premium to fly their preferred carrier to get some of the benefits I mentioned above? No.
When it comes to the BTS data you are mentioning, those numbers indicate nothing useful about the difference in purchase behavior habits of customers with elite status vs the purchase behavior habits of non-elite status -- rather BTS numbers mask the purchase prices paid by elite by co-mingling them with the purchase prices paid by the huge proportion of passengers with no elite status.
A stance that claims elites generally aren't paying at least some premium to fly the carrier on which they have elite status is a stance that defies reality. It is this reality (of a willingness and ability and incidence rate of elites paying a premium) which has the cartel kingpin airlines playing the FFP elite status games in the US and which has them not eliminating elite status earned from flying as much as eliminating the earning of (redeemable) miles from flying.