We agree, almost. But...
Originally Posted by
shawneve
By my rough calculations the average person buying exclusively Flex or higher fares would hit each of the non-SE tiers in segments and have no problem also hitting the AQD.
Yes, they would hit the non-SE tiers, but would the AQD match that tier? Not in my case.
Buying exclusively Flex or higher fares got me P25K and there was no problem, no problem at all, hitting the AQD. Based on AQD alone, I should have had E50K. And that is what motivated the hunt for cheap segments; so I could catch up to my AQD.
I can't speak for the average person, or for rough calculations, and of course I have only guesstimates for my AQD because there is a two-week-and-counting delay in posting the numbers.
I do have a spreadsheet. I know with certainty that my Flex fares YYJ-YOW/YYZ cost me a lot of money and gave me a lot of AQD without enough AQM or AQS to give me status that mattered.
I wish I'd done a few segment runs a few years ago... but until I saw the little counters on the Altitude site, and realized I was closer with segments than with miles, I'd never paid much attention to AQS. I was only concerned with AQM. My mistake.