Originally Posted by
only1percent
What matters most of all is margin dollars on AA and the joint-business-agreement partners metal. 600,000 LPs on AA, BA and JL J and F tickets does more for you than 1.2 million LPs on cards, hotels, non-JBA OneWorld and upgraded Y/W fares.
After that, home airport absolutely matters, and especially for first-timers. Easiest when you fly out of secondary markets (hubs for no airlines) and Chicago, LA, NYC and PHX (AA shares the market), because being a CK will drive more flying on AA. Hard where AA dominates (CLT, PHL, MIA) and especially hard in DFW where AA not only dominates but has a lot of people who stock their LPs with long-haul J and F tickets.
Just curious, if my travel like really picked up, how hard would it be to get CK being primarily ATL based? Not a secondary market but Delta obviously has their fortress there. Would definitely rather stick with AA though. Definitely don't fly enough to get that right now but was curious about that, feel like I'd have a leg up.