Originally Posted by
Superguy
I fly refundable fares for work, but personal travel is leisure fares. Take away my incentive to be loyal and my only loyalty is to my wallet at that point.
Most of us are indeed mixed-ticket flyers -- a lesson British Airways learned the hard way when it revamped the Exec Club 10+ years ago to focus on HVFs buying frequent full-fare front-of-plane tickets. It turned out those same HVFs were also found in row 28 on their weeks off, taking their families on holiday, and didn't like getting the back of the airline's hand. (And when the next recession hit they were more and more flying economy on business trips -- which was when BA sheepishly moderated the program to be less exclusionary toward Lower Forms of Life.)