At the event CO management hosted last year, they showed that the number of total elites increased even with the new system.

You can make arguments that's a flawed way to look at it given the natural uptick in the business cycle (percent requalifying elites versus prior years might provide some better perspective), but they considered that metric a sign of success.

They made the same argument for charging a surcharge for BusinessFirst upgrades. More seats being occupied since the change and awards redeemed. Again, could be the business cycle, but at least there it's pretty clear they're making more $$ and that's the goal.