I don't think enough emphasis has been put on the barriers to jumping programs.
Sure, the other airline will match you, but that's only up to the mid levels of their program, and not towards their lifetime elite.
Can someone at the DO please really dig into this issue? Make everyone there read this thread and all the points? This really is a pretty important issue and the longer this thread gets the more thinking I am doing about options. If the word comes back hard nose negative again, I suspect Jan 1 some people may start faxing in their statements to get some status matches.
But the most important issue of jumping programs - the jumping back. Once you piss off a plat to the point of them dumping loyalty and going somewhere else, YOU WILL LOSE. There is no way to win a war with a plat. You will be easily able to win a battle but there's a 50% chance it'll get reversed on appeal up, and there's a much higher chance (for me 100%) that I will remember this actively and depending on the severity cut ALL spending. Our company has instituted a no Virgin Atlantic policy. If a plat has to change programs, and sets off down the road towards someone else's goal, YOU LOSE.
Imagine FF's as potential dates in a bar. The plat isn't some naive one airline only person, he/she's been around the block, so to speak (airslut?). He/she has probably had significant experience with several carriers and settled on one for some reason or another. Now if you allow "your" date to look around and see all the pretty perks on the other carriers, you let your plats compare your offering to what all the other carriers are peacocking, you're putting yourself in a risky position. Especially if this person is your "sure thing" - the person you're counting on being loyal to you. The person that you took home last weekend, the weekend before, etc. And now they're looking at a major shortcoming of yours and see that trait in every other potential (your competition). What if that person goes home with someone else? What if that carrier manages to sell them on it? What if your reliable actually likes the service? What if your customer realizes that it's not so bad flying through Vegas on the way to LA instead of Houston? What if they find a restaurant in Vegas they like, or they enjoy a two hour slot machine binge? Once that cat is out of the bag, it's hard to get back in.
If a plat makes a commitment to walk down the million miler path with a carrier, it's hard to shake them. It's only a minor commitment. CO stands to lose much business the more popular this issue gets.
Gotta say, for me, CO's already on thin ice. I am what I believe to be under 50% upgrades for 2007, the victim of price abuse, completely fed up with the incredibly bad IFE, and still curious why I take CO on any internationals at all when every other carrier upgrades their plats.
Another issue is the miles program as a pension. CO offers their employees pensions and all kinds of benefits. But the pensions stay, long after the relationship between the employee and co is over. Where's ours? I'm tired of paying for someone ELSE's pension - I want some long term stability. I want to know CO will remember me on March 1.
I am still astounded that co still thinks they have too many platinums. With that attitude, the problem will self-correct. Plus rumor has it that CO ordered new large planes. The planes aren't going to be 90% full forever.
If most of the other carriers didn't suck, this decision would be easy. Now there's a quote.