Originally Posted by
bocastephen
The airlines have forgotten the real reason behind frequent flyer programs - they were a magnet to hold customers loyal and captive to their weak brands and products while camouflaging those weaknesses in the form of benefits and give-aways, so customers would overlook the product weaknesses.
Spot on post.
And therein lies the opportunity for the clever US legacy carrier to eventually boost the value of their FF program by providing better mileage bonuses, better redemption value, etc. in order to best their competitors. Of course this all assumes that the new AA/US eventually goes to a revenue based rewards system as UA and DL have. Or maybe AA/US will be smart and simply leave their program as is and beat the others from day one.