Originally Posted by Captain Flush

(Bolding mine.) You raise very good points, but an important missing part of this is that switching to revenue-based earning across the board effectively penalizes business travelers whose employers aren't willing to purchase higher fares. If I work for company A and you work for company B, and my company is willing to buy me full-fare tickets and yours is only willing to buy you the lowest available restricted fare, how is fair to us -- the people whose butts are in the seats -- to give me more perks than you if we both fly the exact same amount? I just don't see it, especially in a world where each of our employers is already receiving points or perks for buying our tickets in the first place.

I think in the long run this system is going to cause exactly the issue you raised, at least among biz travelers who pay attention to loyalty programs. Those whose employers aren't willing to buy unrestricted fares will become less satisfied and less willing to travel as often. IMO this will have the overall effect of decreasing business travel in the long run (because let's not kid ourselves that many employees will successfully lobby their employers to buy higher fares so they can earn more miles). Framing this change as "giving our best customers access to our most exclusive benefits" is thinly veiled spin, when what's actually going on is that benefits are being restricted to those who spend more, and in many (if not most?) cases the people doing the big spending are not the same people receiving those benefits.