Originally Posted by
js1993
If you don't have the numbers, either, then you're doing exactly that which you're accusing me of doing.
But we don't need exact numbers for this discussion. There's simply no way AA could make money by granting EXP plus four SWUs plus over 200,000 RDM to people after receiving as little as $2,000 in miles-related revenue and as little as ~$2,000 for the required 30 segments. The numbers could only work if AA sells a massive amount of miles that are thereafter massively devalued or are never redeemed.
Why couldn't they work? What does EXP cost them? Was there a check in the mail that I missed? If they upgrade me instead of a Plat Pro does that cost them extra money? The only way to use any of my benefits is to spend money with them.
Status drives business. The only issue is that if everyone has status it becomes worthless and stops driving loyalty, so they only want a certain number of people to have it. Just because status is value to me, it does not mean that it costs them money to give it to me. It's not a zero sum game.