Since the devil is unlikely to come and argue his company's position here, I decided to be an advocate for him.

So here is the view from the other side.

CO is not against its best customers. We value every one of our customers. However, the reality of the airline business has forced us to take some hard decisions.

The airline industry is suffering from over capacity (too many seats chasing too few travelers) which results in a downward pressure on pricing thereby squeezing margins to the minimum. In addition, the economy and events of the last two years has significantly reduced travel from business sector.

The travel experience and benefits that customers get for their tickets and the cost structures of the major airlines were decided/designed in the era when the pricing and margins were much higher.

With the margins decreasing, any reasonable business will first cut its costs and try to match supply to demand. We have done significant work to reduce our costs without demoralizing our team and continuing to provide a safe and clean travel experience. While we continue to reduce supply, the overcapacity in the industry is beyond the control of any one airline and we expect this situation to continue for a number of years to come.

In this situation, the only other thing left for us to do is to match the product and services we provide in line with the prices we can charge for it.

At one extreme, the low fares demanded due to competition with low cost carriers requires us to reduce the services afforded for such tickets to the minimum provided for these carriers - basic and safe transport from point A to point B. At the other extreme, the high fares realizable from our best customers who demand high comfort and levels of service in return deserve the very best we can provide them.

It is with this need to rationalize the product and levels of service with the price that we have instituted both improvements (Elite Access and improved BF) when our customers have paid a high price as well as some reductions in benefits when our customers have taken advantage of our low pricing dictated by the competitive markets.

While we have not held ourselves to some of the statements in the past, one thing I can guarantee going forward is that this philosophy of matching the product and level of service (both immediate and cumulative) to fares paid will continue to be our primary guide and we will be very consistent in making our decisions based on it.

We are not against any particular segment of our OnePass members all of whom are very valuable for our business. When any of our OnePass members purchase a ticket they get benefits as a result of their past relationship with us and they get certain "currency" (miles, bonuses, etc.) that allow them to realize benefits in the future.

While we have tried to maintain the benefits provided to our customers based on past relationship (as reflected by their elite status) as much as we can in the current climate, we have to use our philosophy to match the "currency" we provide for future benefits with the price paid for each ticket.

As a first step, we have instituted changes to reduce the elite qualifying miles for lower fares as this "currency" has the biggest impact on our costs for providing future benefits. Similarly, we have instituted charges on our lower fares on international flights since the benefit of miles upgrades to BF was not commensurate with the lower fares paid. Alternatively, we could have set up a tiered miles table for upgrades based on the fares paid but it is impossible to match the cost of that benefit using just miles.

Hope this explains our position on the matter and lays to rest any doubts that we are against any segment of our customers despite what we may have inadvertantly said earlier.