Originally Posted by
tireman77
Status has a cost to the airline. Airlines need to recoup that cost, so by mandating a minimum number of miles/flights means that they can assure themselves of a minimum direct revenue.
Precisely.
In fact, I think it should be much much higher than it generally is, for all airlines! The most crass example of this (and I can't see it lasting much longer) is A3 (Aegean) in *A. That programme must have the lowest ratio of genuine A3 flyers to members!
BA has a lot of members in the US who get their minimum four flights on BA metal, but then have gold status for flying AA and get their 'free' lounge access as OW Sapphire.