Originally Posted by
antonius66
Certainly true about the miles...given the stupid way the partnership is setup but I would think that giving 5 to 10 or 20k points costs them around 30 to 120 dollars and you would hope gold status would add enough revenue to off set it, but who knows. We certainly can't say that AA doesn't do it because they definitely have researched and made a smart decision that they wouldn't benefit from giving gold, given that AA can't seem to make a smart decision to save their corporate lives.
It doesn't seem stupid to me to offer annual status fast tracks for Globalists - almost by definition frequent travellers. - but also assume that Globalists who can't even be bothered to earn Gold organically are simply lost causes.
FWIW I have been a Marriott Titanium member before, and the UA Silver status it comes with certainly didn't make me any more likely to fly United.