Originally Posted by ConciergeMike

It's not sweeping, nor is it a generalization. The generalization writes itself for the uninitiated: this board almost entirely focuses on accrual of miles and points so as to attain status. OK, fine. Having said that, some cursory reading here will indeed reveal that there is a lot of complaining about minutiae along with whining about upgrades and airline policies that prevent overuse of same. Let's add to this that there are a group of posters spread all over the airline boards who seem to live for nothing else other than status, thereby leading the uninitiated to think they are status-obsessed and have nothing else in their lives. Never mind that these people are probably road warriors, so their status is indeed very important to them. But someone who peeks in on the site and doesn't have background information can easily reach the conclusion that any one poster on any given day could be a self-important toolbag.

Whether or not most FTer's are elitists in their off-website lives doesn't matter: perception by outsiders of their writings on the board is what counts in this example. And if they look to be elitists, that outsider (Elliott) will label them such. I personally think there are tons of people here who look down their nose at those who fly in Y or those who fly WN...and with terms like "Kettles" and "great unwashed" getting thrown around fairly regularly, I'm afraid that there might be a loss of understanding among those who do not frequent FT. Those people who look down their nose also do a great job of looking like they come off as better than those other people who do fly WN or regularly sit in Y, whether because of their personal means or their lack of status.

Long story short: perception is way more important than truth. And the truth is that a perception of elitism is dominant here. YMMV of course.