I don't think comparing airlines to specialty stores is valid. For starters one's choice of airlines is rather limited in general and depending upon where one lives/travels to in many cases you have even fewer options, with speciality stores/items you have The Internet as a pretty big option for finding goods. I think the airlines have consolidated enough that sufficient numbers of flyers are left with no good recourse when it comes firing their airline. Are there some people in DFW for example who will fly DFW-IAH-XXX-IAD-DFW every week just avoid AA because they are mad...I'm sure there are; it is a meaningful number of frequent flyers? I would surmise its not. My home airports have multiple carriers and this year I ended up with $6300 MQDs on Delta that would have probably gone to AA in the past due to DL having better equipment/schedule on the flights I needed (still barely only made Silver) and as I have the ability to just book F I booked what was best vs brand loyalty but I still made sure I re-qualified for EXP as I find the OWE benefits/carriers/routes valuable. If DL had proper Intl-F, was in OW not ST, could book partner F, didn't have the SkyPeso I'd fly them much more. Put another way, I found most of my flying experience on DL (both on the ground and in the air) this year superior to my experience on AA but even with all the changes AA still has a better program and thus while I will continue to give DL business when it makes sense the shortcomings of their FF program, based on my preferences anyways, means that AA/OW still wins the lion share of my business.