Originally Posted by
Knobbgb
If, by "general people" you mean other M&B members who are not regulars here then surely they will! After all, what percentage of M&B members (Gold or otherwise) actually read this forum? I'd guess it's less than 1%. There are (apparently) many US based M&B members who probably fly primarily on UA. There must be a LOT of people out there who miss out on mileage or other perks because they just don't understand the details as well as we do.
I would say that generally A3's US members are more likely to be members of FT, or at least readers of blogs etc which might drive visitors here. It's extremely unlikely any US citizen would randomly join M&B instead of programmes from UA or AA - they would do it for the qualification requirement only, which I'm willing to bet is not general knowledge outside a relatively small number of people.
The loss of entitlement point is a good one though - I suspect it's more likely to apply to Europeans though, given M&B is a more 'natural' fit for us - particularly in the UK where there's now no home airline in Star following the demise of BD.