Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
The fun of this discussion starts wearing off so I won't do a rebuttal of every argument brought up, But this one intrigues me, just from a logic point of view:
If I understand you correctly, by "inflation of benefits" you mean that there will be more lounge visits, longer lines at priority check-in, etc. - correct?
In which case, could you please explain how that should happen? Mathematically more lounge visits etc can come from two things:
- More status card holders than before - vey unlikely to happen, see above. People that will have a status card next year are those that either requalified by earning the XP (the likes of you), people who would have qualified in a normal year and now get a push from FB as they simply cannot fly (many), and some that would not have requalified. So the only people in the lounges next year that otherwise wouldn't be there otherwise are the ones that would not have qualified this year but end up doing so thanks to the push. But these people are in the lounge this year already, so from that angle there is no addition of new members. You may have a net addition of new members if some people qualify with miles this year - but given that it's nearly impossible to fly there won't be that many. So in sum: not more card holders than before in a signficant fashion.
- Status holders use the lounge etc more often. Why would that be the case? If at all, many status members will fly as much as today, so they don't add to the crowding. The majority will probably fly less, so that actually takes crowding away from the lounges. Add to that the fact that airlines will only offer 70-80% of the capacity they offered before March, and that reduces lounge population even more
So, with those facts, how is FB's initiative making lounges more crowded? Can you demonstrate that logically?
I already answered that above, but I appreciate it's a lot of text, so in a nutshell, there is likely 3 factor: you'll have less lounges since some of them will consolidate (due to say terminals being closed or just because of cost optimization). Immediate example that comes to mind from my flying patterns: you have AZ and AF lounges in JFK literally 20m away from each other and with flights departing around same time. Some lounges my close whole sections (say, AF in 2F will close a floor). And then the crowded is not only about capacity, but also about offering, customer service availability etc.
My point there will be scarcity of resource one way or the other. If AF/KL feels resource is in abundance, they'll see it as possiblity to optimize and thus will create a scarcity. I don't want to call anyone who think otherwise 'naive', but time will show.