Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
At the time of the merger, DL was said to have slightly more than 80,000,000 FF accounts, of which about 2,000,000 were elite (25,000 status miles per year or the parallel requirement of 30 segments). Of there, roughly 40,000 became charter DMs with 125,000 status miles annually or a similar segment requirement.
Beyond such similar data provided by airlines from time to time, carriers consider their FF numbers to be proprietary. In addition, it would be difficult to determine how many people have elite status on more than one carrier to attempt to get the distributions by individuals of total miles flown, rather than miles flown on a single carrier/alliance.
The USG can calculate it or have it calculated within a reasonably small margin of error. Keep in mind that the unfunded DHS/TSA mandates upon airlines serving the US create a treasure trove of data.
My guess is that 10% of the population accounts for 80+% of annually flown domestic US seat miles.