Originally Posted by brunos

I fully agree with your post and previous ones.

And I am confident that Cruz and Walsh have a fairly comprehensive view of the contribution of a FFP. Their problems is that it is difficult to estimate the medium term "reactions" to changes in a FFP. I also believe that their focus is on the bottom line, so that "revenue" is a poor proxy for that. Indeed FFPs are about "incentive" not "loyalty". Giving generous miles/TP to a cheap Y or J pax that would induce the pax to buy BA rather than QR or EK is profitable because it fills a seat that would otherwise be empty. It is an alternative to offering an even lower fare to compete. The contribution to the bottom line might be more significant than offering very generous miles/TP to high fares who have otehr priorities in booking their flight with BA.

But designing a FFP to induce pax to maximize the bottom line is more than tricky given the myriads of profiles. Any simple rule such as revenue-based is suboptimal. I personally believe that having a revenue-based system for both miles (Avios) and status (TP) is a mistake relative to the current system which is already geared toward revenue.