Brucemcal,

I agree with your observations that costs and FF benefits will have to come down.

I guess my focus on revenue is driven by all the attention placed on costs. A post says costs must come down, another says
employees are the biggest costs, employees start posting about the wages they gave up in 1994, more employees start whining about the CEO and I head down to the Hilton board.
But nobody posts that we should pay more to fly. I'm not pushing that either but I do think we're going to have to pay more.

For some people, air travel is not discretionary. Over the last year, who those people are and how much they'll travel has become much clearer. The current pricing scheme essentially tries to yank the last dollar out of the business traveler, including the US "use it or lose it" plan. At the same time, I read where the average leisure fare is actually down 20% in the past few years.

I see a world where the fare that's $250 today rises to $325 or $350, and that won't leave too many folks at home or taking Greyhound. I see a world where there's 3 flights a day to where you're going instead of 5 or 6 and you get there a couple of hours early or late. I see FF benefits being dramatically reduced, not so much on the earning side which Randy and we can measure, but on the benefit side, which we can't (eg. capacity controls). And yes I see costs coming way, way down.