Originally Posted by
NWIFlyer
Neither. The programme would initially have been launched to compete in a Greek-only market where A3 and OA went head-to-head. To a certain extent, up to the point where the two airlines became one, that still applied.
Now, given the miles earning structure it would take the vast majority of Greek residents an awful lot of flying A3 metal to reach Gold status (even Blue would be a stretch for many).
Star Alliance changed all that for obvious reasons, but A3 still had to support its domestic-only market and was left in a difficult place.
No-one is an idiot - if fact, looking at the structure of the new M&B and where benefits really accrue (ie flying A3/OA metal) I'd say there's a lot of people at A3 who are rather cleverer than you seem to think they are ...
You seem to be saying that the "too good to be true" aspect of the prior (current) incarnation of the program is due to the fact they were optimizing for domestic conditions. What's "too good to be true" for the rest of us is actually a rational fit for domestic flyers.
Okay, I get that. But, why, then, did they open the program to foreigners?
UA, for example, has two sets of rules. One for Americans and one for everyone else. There are reports on FT that they are enforcing this vigorously by demanding paperwork for proof of foreign residence. UA is the inverse of A3 in that it makes things easier for foreigners and harder for Americans, but still, this is an example of an airline drawing a line to distinguish what they want to do domestically vs globally.
If A3 is so smart, and this was all a clever and well reasoned plan, then why didn't they introduce a two-tier plan in the first place with different criteria for foreigners or with forced A3 metal, which is basically the same thing?
Seems to me they were caught off guard by the extent to which foreigners found ways to take advantage the generous benefits without ever touching A3 metal.