Originally Posted by maxvor

That ignores the fact that "there is no free lunch". All the benefits enjoyed by people who didn't pay to get them come at the expense of those who did. I'm not sure how exactly that will manifest itself, but lounge cutbacks and overcrowding, extra competition for extra leg-room seats definitely come to mind right away.


Surprising, nah, that's not only airlines are allowed to optimize, but their customers too?
To give some context: I've already qualified for Gold at 208 XPs and had another 60-70 XPs lined up, with obvious intent to bring it to Platinum level. Now, with all COVID policy of KL/AF I just couldn't see why I would try: no helping hand was given to achieve Platinum easier, refund request refused, vouchers at ticket price value, many of places I need to be in second half of the year now have ticket prices at 200-300% their normal price. What is here to be loyal for?
On the other hand:
- QR gave me back my Gold status for another year after I was already downgraded to Silver. UA extended my *A Gold status for another year (and I really would have difficult time keeping it this year looking at my future itineraries)
- LOT has rebooked my heavily discounted J ticket to SIN right to Christmas time with no fare difference plus gave 30% discount for another booking
- Finnair rebooked 2 of my J tickets to the time I needed, changing origin or destination on both of them and bringing one of the legs to higher fare bucket, no upcharge
- Emirates allowed me to keep my J and F tickets open with ability to change dates / destination within same region without upcharge
In other words pretty much every other airline helped me one way or the other when I needed it. Guess how much extra I plan to spend with AF/KL now for the rest of the year, once flying starts again? Exactly zero. In fact I just received correcting amount on one of my credit cards for the chargeback requested for AF refusal to refund and I plan to do another one next week (I will try to convince them first to refund it voluntarily - that is the best gesture I can make given lack of any good gestures from them going my way)