Originally Posted by
Finkface
AS needs to stop giving out the bennies (GGU's, BR passes, etc) when they just hand out status matches like candy.
Well, it's their stuff to give away as they please. It probably is more of a PITA to special case various kinds of elites ("here's the one we status matched, here's the real one who requalified/qualified during the year") than it is to just give it away and accept that the FT "I want some free stuff to sell on CC or an upgrade on my Hawaii flight with my spouse, and have no real interest in actually staying elite on AS" crowd is going to do what they do, and figure that the customers and business you win by status matching make it worth it.
Not at all surprising that FT is full of people who figure they'll hop on the gravy train if there's one coming down the tracks with an Eskimo on it. And inevitably if there is too much gravy being taken, AS will shut it down, as inevitably happens to these deals when they are abused.