<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jonesy565:
...But do the airlines have a way of knowing who is the bigger asset? And if they know, how do they use this knowledge. </font>
Yes, the airlines have ways of knowing who spends how much. For example, UA will sometimes reward the big spenders by giving them top-level status (1K) even if they have not flown the required 100,000 miles or 100 segments. Other than this situation, I am not aware of any other differences in how UA treats its elite flyers. Essentially, all members of a specific elite category are treated the same. The airlines can mine their databases to see who spends what, but they don't seem to make any use of that information in their routine day-to-day dealings with elite passengers.