<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Plato90s:
It's not a silent majority - it's the 80/20 rule.
80% of revenue is provided by 20% of fliers. The "silent majority" is not nearly as important as that 20% segment.
The people on FlyerTalk are in that 20%.</font>
FWIW,
Of the 40,000+ EXPs, FTers account for 100+.
Of the 200K odd Platinums, FTers account for 150-200+
Though we might be a vocal group, but we
do not account for the
20%.
More like
0.1%(PLT) to 0.25%(EXP)
We are the group that milk the airline for elite status and upgrades. Knocking out the big spender(50-100K+), we would not even account for
2 million+ worth of revenues per airline/hotel.
What we do account for is a lot of lost revenue for the airlines. Because we know the in's and out's of the system and are the best milkers in the industry, a lot of high paying customers are feeling left out (upgrades, standbys, priority seating etc) because we outshine them in every department.(except revenue
)
What you are looking at is the creation of a level playing feild. Is it good or bad for us. I don't know. What I do know is that when the dust settles, new rules would be in place. The game would be harder but not impossible.
Like I said before, we at Flyertalk are the best milkers of the system in the industry. Given a set of new rules that would not change, we will find loopholes in no time. IF we can't, we are not worth being called
Flyertalkers.
[This message has been edited by Bourne (edited 09-02-2002).]