On the assumption that Virgin America's eleVAte program works much like Virgin Blue's Velocity, the revenue model may not look so attractive after all. Sure earning is related to fare paid, but award cost is also related to available fares. Instead of double mileage anytime award you could find the last minute award costs 10 times one planned in advance.

If you want to see how FFers view this kind of program, check out the talk on FT about Virgin Blue Velocity and Air NZ Airpoints (which is what Velocity looked at before they launched).

These kind of programs work well for some flyers, but not so well for others.