Re: NW's treatment of Silvers versus the other Elites, keep in mind that the "Elite Curve" is probably a bit more skewed on NW than on other U.S. carriers (except possibly UA).

There is a LARGE contingent of NW Platinum Elites out there who fly to Asia (or Europe) 2+ times WEEKLY. For example, my dad did this for the first nine months of this year due to his job, and racked up in excess of 475K qualifying miles as a result (this includes about 75K for the staus Q-promo that NW offered this past summer). Assuming his company paid about $1/mile for the tickets (all in WBC), that would equal $400,000 to NW's bottom line.

So the question for NW is, with the limited amount of resources available, whom do you offer the additional perks to: those at the bottom of the Elite pyramid, or to the people at the top who comprise the majority of NW's income? It's sort of like politics, in that politicians could solve the problems of the poor and working-class, but instead largely cater to the middle-class and rich, who vote and contribute to campaigns.

[This message has been edited by avek00 (edited 12-07-2001).]