Weatherboy; I'm not challenging your veracity re: the increase to $75K. However, that big of a jump doesn't smell right. Yes, the published tiers have gone up the last few years so we were expecting GS to increase as well. That said, the $50K Pass Plus amount for GS status seemed to match years (if not almost 2 decades) of data that suggested it took ~$50K in almost all markets to get GS organically.

So are we saying that the new (unpublished) threshold for getting GS organically is now around $75K? That feels like a HUGE jump. Further, the $75K for Pass Plus needs to be paid up front, not as you fly organically. Why in the world would anyone pony up $75K when you could easily spend far less and (likely) get it organically? A quick perusal of the annual spreadsheet kept in the GS thread each year would suggest that ¾ of the Flyertalk GS folks today wouldn't come close to GS next year based on historical spend over the last 15 years. Something is way off here.

Without compromising your anonymity, could you (or anyone else who received the email) post the email you received so we could read it? Again, not questioning your veracity, just wondering if there is new wording in the contract that can help us wrap our heads around such a huge jump. TYIA.