Originally Posted by
fastair
I am no spokesman for any airline, but common sense should answer this. If an airline has surpolus seats, and the revenue from carrying you displaces no other passengers of higher value, and the cost of carrying you (including labor, fuel, miles...) is less that the cost of your ticket, I would believe that they have nothing against it.
If on the otherhand, the airline made a msitake, and you are either/both costing them money, or displacing higer yielding traffic, unless it is on a competitor, they would frown upon abusing the system.
Airlines are in a biz-ness to either a) make money, or b) lose less money. Every time you help them do this, they get happier. When your trips cause them to get furthur from these goals, they most likely do not get happier.
The fact is that I do
not generally sit in seats that would be otherwise empty. I am generally in one of the best seats in E+ and my MRs almost always include legs on full planes. I also do
not think my airline makes money from me flying around at 2 or 3 cents per mile and also gaining the benefits of status.
In reality I think that there are so few of us that we're viewed as a oddity and not a threat (to profitability).