<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NickB:
I think, however, that one should be careful before inferring the existence of worldwide norms on the basis of examples which are primarily US-based. The US and European market are VERY different. There is a homogeneity in the US that does not exist in Europe; patterns of flying and fare structures are also different.
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As an example, AC managed to gut the Aeroplan system at the start of 2002 without law suits etc. Lets hope KLM doesn't follow this path.