I haven't really seen this covered much on the board, so let's get a little discussion going:

How rare (or common) is elite status? Anyone have any official stats, or want to take a guess?

I think the best way to gauge it would be percentages:

1. Percentage of passengers that are elite on any given plane.

2. Percentage of all travelers (we'll say people who take at least one flight every two years) who are elite.

Now, obviously elites are going to be disproportionately represented on any given plane, as they travel far more often than non-elites. So for the first percentage, I'd guess it's about 15%. But when all travelers are lumped together, who knows? 2%? 5%? Let's hear your guesses, or if anyone has any actual facts about this. Is it really special to be an elite?

Dear Newbie with 18 posts.

I would suggest you trawl the boards for this info, it has been discussed AD NAUSEUM on hundreds of occasions as have actual and estimated numbers for most programes, and more importantly at what levels.

Welcome to FT!

I would only add that most of the discussions, which as noted are many, are in specific airline forums: the number of elites in AA's program in the AA forum, the number of elites in United's program in the United forum, etc.

Try to ignore the rude post above. However as mentioned this topic has been covered quite extensively in each of the airlines forums.

I also don't really see how this pertains to the "latest frequent flyer program buzz" so I'll go ahead and close it here.

Regards,

Flipside