Originally Posted by
D404
I'm aware of how capitalism works. AC does not have personal feelings or personal anything.
The surprising part to me is from a PR/opticst/brand perspective, how blatant it is. Even BA wasn't so blatant. Brand damage isn't just short term thing. (Yes we can argue endlessly about how it isn't actually that, and the people who matter to AC's bottom line are fine with it, etc. etc. My 2 cents is this forum is pretty skewed in opinion towards SE on OPM or business expense.)
(Aside: i am not sure you intended it, but your comment comes off quite condescending.)
Sorry - was not intentional.
From AC's perspective, they have a significant problem. The demand for J is extremely high and *despite raising prices significantly*, they STILL cannot offset the demand. What would you have them do? Continue pandering to SEs and giving away "free" (yes, earned, though in a lessor manner than paying for very high margin flights) upgrades?
To quell the immediate demand problem they need to try to squash the demand for J seats as much as possible, and the group of customers to fire right now are those that provide the least amount of margin, which, unfortunately, is the, soon to be former, SE population.
Any investor would demand the same thing. As an aside, if they can indeed get this high margin group of fliers to 'stick with them' through the next economic downturn, then that will provide FAR more revenue (and stability!) than the SEs of the past. (one doesn't have to look far to see what AMEX is doing soon with the Platinum card)
Again, just business.
There's a big part of me that just want these airlines to get rid of what customers call "loyalty" programs. We're quickly getting to the way with how "loyalty" programs work at Harry Rosen or Holt Renfrew. -purely spend based. The rules are clear and the rewards are clear. I wish they'd just all do that now so they can just rip the bandaid off once and for all.
In a future economic downtown, they can simply play around with the spend requirements and increase "benefits". Easy - none of this convoluted BS YoY at AC.