those aren’t made up numbers. I was showing how the MQM/MQD gets thrown out of whack simply based on where you are flying to and that depending on that it is easier and less costly for some to achieve DM status than the others.

As a public company, Delta has to show top line revenue growth, in addition to bottom line profitability. The higher spenders are certainly more valuable to top line revenue but it is unknown the impact on net income.

Anyone with experience in airline economics care to chime in? I supposed fixed costs are the same but variable costs are higher on longer flights. However, the longer flights have a larger base (# of passengers) to spread costs over allowing for efficiencies with per seat economics and pricing.