Originally posted by Mvic:
Problem, Premex, is that there are too many elites. There are plenty of people who charge all their business and other expenses to their CC and do relatively little travelling and these people clutter up the lounges and the front of the plane. This makes it harder for the true "road warriors" to get upgrades and that extra special service that the $$ they spend on actually flying entitle them too.
As far as economy class and non status travelers getting short shrift, I couldn't agree more. If you change to a revenue based model many of the people who are now elites because of carefully crafted and low priced mileage runs, and clickrewards, and dinning programs and hotels stays, etc ad nausem would likely not be elites but stuck in coach with the rest of the sardines. They would also raise holy hell and I am pretty sure that service would improve drastically.
Mvic, you're way off here. Travel miles are the only miles that help one qualify for elite status. So the elite lounges and FC sections are full of ... frequent flyers.
The only people your revenue-based model would affect are those who do mileage runs. This is a small, small percentage of travelers (believe it or not, a mileage obsession is not shared by the rest of the population), and most of them, I'd guess, are doing so to make a higher level of elite status, not just make the lowest level of elite.
Also, under your model, say one needs to spend, what, $5,000 in a year to qualify for elite. That may sound high when you can go coast to coast for $200-ish, but airlines certainly wouldn't give elite for $1,000. Anyway, in effect, you're selling elite status, which frequent flyers here have complained about with the AmEx Centurion card.
But it just doesn't add up. If you spend $5,000 to get a year's worth of upgrades, then that's really going to eat away at the airline's ability to sell full-fare tickets (remember, many companies will pay more so employees can have a better ride, especially on int'l flights).
Basically, this creates a system of where one set of people pay much more with the expectation of better service and a better product. Fine. You get what you pay for.
But that can't co-exist with the current fare system because customers wouldn't go for it. You would need all coach tickets to be one price, and all first/business tickets to be another. Basically, that's reshaping the entire industry, and that's not going to happen.