Originally Posted by Yaatri
I do not concur with your opinion that it's cheaper to be an elite when one is based in the US. The cost of becoming an elite depends more on the kind of flying one does, than on where one lives. As a rule cost per mile is less for longer itinerairies. A Europe based flyer can fly to farway international destinations just as well as a US based traveller can.
In the USA you can fly five hours or more and still be in the same country - and your internal fares are quite cheap compared to what we pay to get from one end of Europe to the other.