BWICOPLAT,

Personally, I'm with you. Essentially what has happened is that CO has changed the way it prices its product. The FC fares have dropped about 60% on many lines. So now these seats are filled with passengers paying these lower FC fares.

Also, in coach, CO is selling very low fares and on many flights there are so many revenue passengers that there is no rewards availability.

Reading other posters it is clear that the rewards that are available depend largely on where you fly. I happen to fly a lot of transcon out of NYC, and my tally for upgrades in the past 18 months is 1 for 28.

Of course, upgrades are perks not something to be taken for granted. If CO can sell a FC seat EWR-LAX rt for $1,100 why would they give it to me when I'm only paying $258? I don't fault them for that in the least.

On the other hand, what good is a loyalty program if the customer's loylaty is not rewarded in any meaningful manner?

I still fly CO but only based on price and schedule. If you think about, this is what CO's management wants, that is how they are positioning their product.

What I do think is that CO's management ought to set aside some seats for its elite ff's, otherwise they will end up alienating many of them. And, in the long run, ff's are much better customers than casual passengers who purchase based only on price, because they have an incentive not only to keep doing business with CO, but often at a premium.

In the same way that WN is more convenient for you out of BWI, I have chosen to fly JetBlue. Even though both JetBlue and CO have NYC hubs, the coach experience on JetBlue is light years ahead of what CO offers, especially on the long cross-country flights, where the cramped cabin of CO's 737's is dreadful.

What I do find a little odd is the attitude of some of the posters (this topic is on-going in this forum) who seem to feel that if a customer like me isn't getting anything out of the program that is somehow disloyal to select another airline. I mean this is just a business transaction, not some kind of secret society with a blood pledge.