An excellent example of how many things start by giving their originator a competitive advantage, but soon become a competitive necessity if one is to remain in a market at all.

Once everyone has something like a loyalty program, one of two things will happen. Either rewards will escalate, with every airlinne trying to outdo the others, or they'll decline as the behavior-influencing value of FF programs stabilizes and the rewards just have to be attractive enough to keep too many customers from jumping ship.

The first is what I suspect led to the Pan Am offer. The second is what we're seeing the most of today.