That is very true for non RA's. As a marketing exercise you have to wonder though why you would give anything of value to those who would drop the same spend anyway, it makes very little commercial sense and is probably a waste of money.

If you already have RA then you are getting some benefits (albeit now diminished) which influences your choice so it is not quite like the Korean example given, so some reason to stay for upgrades and stay benefits. There has been a reasonable level of consistency year to year too, with apparently no dramatic increase in the $10k requirement first documented to date, whether that changes will be interesting.

The RA referral certificates made perfect sense in this environment, which is how I originally came to RA 10 years ago. Let customers try the benefits and that will encourage them to qualify and create longer term loyalty. Without the referrals though there is no real ladder to status benefits and not enough reason to stay (in the face of quite strong competition in many locations and markets).

It makes little sense for those who were once RA's and who lose status to ever really try again given opaque requirements and relatively low on property benefits during attempted requalification. It makes much more sense to go down the Amex FHR/Virtuoso etc. route.