i always thought it was in response to WN growing so quickly w/their very popular rapid rewards. fly 4 round trips, get a free ticket anywhere in the US. nobody in their right mind would fly UA or AA when WN was there if you were a short haul flyer. i assume that's how WN got such a huge market share between northern and southern california. to this day, i don't know anyone who flies anyone but WN. i am the oddball, but i only switched to a legacy after WN made it 8 round trips. with the 500 mile min on legacies, + elite benefits and a larger share of longer flights, i made the jump. it was hard at first cuz WN was so great, but i stuck with it...at least until now. who knows what's next.

I recall 1000 mile minimums on Piedmont (perhaps USAir once that sale was completed) in the late 80s/early 90s, with frequent “triple miles” promotions. I used to travel several times a year (basically doing MRs before I even knew what they were) from Norfolk to Atlantic City, connecting in either Baltimore or Philadelphia, and thought it was fascinating that I could get 12,000 award miles for a 400 mile round trip. Part of the thrill was that the airfare was frequently comped (reimbursed) by a casino or 2. (I always seemed to lose my ticket receipt and asked for re-prints and then somehow arrived in Atlantic City with 2 or 3 “original” receipts.) 1000 mile minimums might have been a promotion, but if so, it was such a frequent promotion that it seemed like the standard. I won’t be home for a month or 2 but I still have photocopies of my statements from those years so I could check for verification.

There wasn't a lot of WN to fly in these parts back then. The OAK terminal that is all WN now was all AirCal and PSA then.

My recollection is that 1,000 was also the minimum on EA (Eastern Airlines). When American Express introduced it's first Delta co-branded credit card they offered triple miles for tickets purchased with the card. Eastern did not have a card partner so they bettered the offer by offering triple miles for all flights for (I think) an entire year, which meant that a MIA-TPA-MIA roundtrip generated at least 6,000 miles and did not cost much because there was substantial surplus capacity with EA, DL, PA and Air Florida offering service.

Yes,it was 1000 miles minimum in the early-mid 80s. Around 1985-86, Delta started a mileage war by offering triple miles for a short time. Everyone else followed suit, and the "short time" ended up going till the end of the year. For that brief period, you got 3000 miles per segment minimum. I guess that was the birth of mileage inflation for FF programs.

Dropped to 750 briefly, and then to 500, with some programs (UA) only giving actual flown mileage to non-elites.

Also, some programs don't even have a 500 mile minimum (even for elites) on all partner airlines. On some partner airlines they may have a smaller minimum, on others they may have no minimum.

Remember UA a few years ago eliminated the 500 mile minimum and quickly rescinded the move when everyone complained. Imagine that, people complained and they actually listened!

I think it's to make sure that people remain loyal even for short flights. For long flights it's a no-brainer, you aren't going to deflect to another airline and give up thousands of miles in your preferred program. But honestly, most people could care less about another 300 miles. It's not going to make or break your elite status for the next year, and it's not going to get you much towards a free ticket. Also, the short haul routes are the ones that have the most LCC competition. Therefore, the 500 mile minimum provides an incentive to stay with your carrier.

Amtrak today, which has a dollar-based system, almost from the beginning of AGR offered a 100-point minimum, which is a good deal for frequent users of fares of less than $100. So, even a $7 ticket results in 100 AGR points.

As the wise arse that I am, I was going to reply:

'The 500 mile minimum came from the 750 minimum.' Sort of like the how the 50% Gold RDM bonus came from the 100% Gold RDM bonus.

I'm surprised more programs don't offer it more as RDM even if they don't as EQM.

QF offer 1,000 RDM minimum on all flights but as they use status credits for elite qualification they don't offer a minimum on those.