Hi Ben, thanks for engaging on this thread. Differentiating XP by fare type is certainly not new, but I don’t think we’ve seen any program seriously consider zero status credit on the cheapest J fares. Even the major US revenue-based programs always award PQP (United) or MQD (Delta). You may lose segment earning on basic fares, but you still get something toward qualification. Likewise, distance-based programs like Qatar Privilege Club also differentiate earning in a distance-based program, but even their lowest J fares still accrue at least some QPoints for qualification.

Then there’s BA Club who shocked everyone earlier this year by switching to a revenue-based system, only to apparently backtrack again by introducing a hybrid model that now combines revenue and distance-based earning.

Yes, elite members probably often buy the lowest published fare (I sometimes do, but not always, as flexibility to make changes sometimes matter to me for example) because their tier benefits make the experience attractive anyway, but those tier benefits are precisely the perks they earned through loyalty. There’s a limit to how far “irrational loyalty” will stretch when the very perks used to justify loyalty become harder to maintain due to fare unbundling and removing XP accrual on the lowest fares.

XP can absolutely be used as a carrot to encourage buy-ups, but as sehgalanuj pointed out, it shouldn’t become the stick. Boosting XP on higher fares is far less controversial than eliminating XP altogether on the cheaper ones. The fact that people are purchasing SAF at every opportunity shows that customers are willing to pay more to earn more.

I'm not even going to get to the inconsistency with Transavia where all fares now earn miles and accrue XP as that is a question I put forward in the other thread for the upcoming interview