Originally Posted by imapilotaz

The quick and easy answer is no one knows. However I think the 120 segment for US vs 100 segment for AA requirement is a nature of their network and the type of passenger their focus on. US has always been an airline that "forces" connections by having dramatically lower fares to connect than a nonstop and artificially pushes demand on its flights with lower yields. I would also venture to guess that they dont have massive numbers of elite in their hubs.

AA on the other hand is really strong in their hubs and their focus is on putting people on nonstops. It's not often that AA has lower fares to connect, whereas I'm not sure I've not seen that on US. That means that AA's philosophy has people flying fewer segments, and thus able to leave the highest levels at fewer segments.

Try being a DFW based 100-segment EXP. It sucks. Big time. It's hard to add extra segments because bouncing off MIA, JFK, LGA, or LAX always adds more to the cost. THe only help is ORD, and that's a cluster in both the summer and winter for weather cancellations.