Originally Posted by
FWAAA
From a press release in March of 2007:
The AAdvantage Program was the first and is the world's largest frequent flyer program. Established in 1981, the program now claims more than 56 million members.
Of those 56 million, probably less than 1/4 have regular (quarterly? monthly?) flight activity.
Remember that the vast majority of the traveling public has 3-4 business trips per year and the annual vacation with the kids to Disney. We FTers are unusual!
I would estimate close to a million GLDs (most of whom probably don't even realize they have it and never take advantage of the benefits). This category would include 1MMers who never fly or who have partner activity only.
Among AA elites (ONLY elites), perhaps 30-40% are PLT, and less than 10% are EXP.
Also, we have to keep in mind that if we fly LGA-DFW, LGA-ORD, LAX-JFK, RDU-AUS, AUS-SJC, that we will experience a much higher proportion of elites than a normal representative sample.
For any given mainline widebody flight ON AVERAGE, perhaps we could say an AVERAGE of 6-10 GLDs, 3-4 PLTs, 1 or 0 EXPs.
I have based these numbers on no actual data; just my personal speculation. So no flames please!