Interesting discussion, and I wanted to mention that I greatly appreciate Ben commenting in this thread - especially as there is no shortage of very strong opinions on here

The problem seems quite clear. Unbundled ticket fares have lower margins, which make it more difficult to maintain positive revenue on those tickets when status pax make use of their benefits. Status effectively gives a discount on what a "feature rich standard fare" would have been if unbundling wasn't a thing. Where, in some cases, that discount may be larger than the fare component itself. While thats obviously a negative on that specific ticket - if the customer, overall, is still a profitable one - does that matter? Is there a need to fix that specific scenario if overall that elite customer still brings in more revenue per annum than a non-elite?

Question then becomes if there are elites that are no longer profitable, or less profitable than the average pax. That was unthinkable in the past, but could very well be the case now. And if the balance of those elites becomes a problem for the program I see only two solutions: Coaxing those elites to become more profitable, or, getting rid of them as elites. The former (hopefully) being the preferred.

In typical 'armchair CEO' fashion I would also believe that there are ways to improve profitability for such customers - many already mentioned. Higher qualification requirements, incentivising flying AFKL rather than partners (e.g. a UXP requirement for all status levels), incentivising high margin (premium) travel (Naturally by providing benefits like extra XPs, or forcefully by making premium travel a requirement for qualification), or targeting upgrades to more profitable fares by adding benefits that are interesting specifically to elites (E.g. extra XP's on higher fares, offering XP on OLCI upgrades, opportunities to purchase or get upgrade vouchers, ability to privately pay towards higher XP-earning fare upgrade on corporate tickets, etc). Or of course the topic of this thread, being the elimination of XP earnings on cheap fares, "weeding out" elites that are solely qualifying using such fares. All have their own pro's and con's, and the elite customer base may respond very differently to the various options.

Personally I too am of the opinion that incentivising higher margin fares would be better received by most, compared to disincentivizing cheap fares. Especially if what's being suggested would be true, where (still very profitable) 'cheap' premium fares would not earn towards status - as that is the bread&butter for many corporate travellers qualification nowadays. I'm sure my company is not alone in requiring booking Light fares at all time. Very expensive Light fares, mind you - typically in PE or Business. If those trips would not earn, I only have one recourse for status - and that is to switch this travel to another airline or FF programme. While I may not be free in choosing a more expensive fare when booking corporate travel, I am free in choosing another airline (Especially since those are usually cheaper and already preferred for that reason anyway).