Originally Posted by
orbitmic
Well, I can't speak for Continental Europe in the 1990s because I only moved my account there in 2000 or so when I came back, but with regards to the US, this is more than a memory. I joined when I was a student there on the first long haul BA flight I booked and trust me, at the time, I only ever went for the cheapest possible fare even when it meant changing my desired flying dates by several days to get it. For years, I didn't fly anything else than cheapest Y and whilst I couldn't possible tell you about TP implications as I was not chasing status, I had no problem joining, and no problem accruing full miles with every single one of my trip. That's how I switched my transatlantic flying from KL to BA and how I got my first award ticket fairly quickly.
This is also my memory and a similar experience. In the spring of 1999 I joined BAEC and a few other FFP because I was moving to Europe. I only flew Y for the first couple of years and gained miles and TPs, though obviously not a lot
I can still recall my naive first moment of going to the lounge at LGW and presenting my blue card to try to get in. Awww youth
In general, I think things have gotten better. I look at like this from when I joined to today: good, fair, better, good. If I give it more thought I'm sure I could do a timeline for this.
H