Agree or disagree. Status should be 100% spend based.

Disagree. Butt in seat miles / butt in bed nights should count. Should reward loyal behavior, not just a few expensive tickets

(Paying) First Class flyers will agree and Coach flyers will disagree

Disagree (as mentioned I'm a coach flyer for most of my travel) I fly 100000+ annually - so because i pay less than a person in first class that might fly less but pay more they get status/higher status, and I don't? Might sound good from a monetary perspective for the airline but don't see the customer benefit.

Last year I spent $5k past the Diamond threshold but came up 15 segments short :(

Absolutely should be spend based. The whole point is increasing customer lifetime value. No company gives a shit about NPS beyond it delivering more NPV

My issue is that I take expensive flights (last minute client meetings and pitches on heavily traveled routes), but am lucky to make gold given that my trips are topically 500 miles. I suspect I'm worth more than folks flying reliable schedules, booked in advance on deep discount fares, even if they are doing 100k miles a year.

I would suggest that your $$$ spender is less loyal, if I know what I can spend to receive status i.e. $12000 (obviously made up random number), Im spending that, making status for the next year and then going to the next airline to do the same - it doesn't keep them with a specific airline all is does it allow for status on multiple airlines based on spend - you could easily get status on multiple airlines with a few business travels per year

@M2 - please share your wisdom, how is a 1hour $1000 pax not more profitable than a 4hr $500 pax?

I agree with spend based but would love to hear the counterarguments. If any.

Agree completely. The miles traveled are off no value to the airline. Also I've spent over 10k on united this year (always economy) but only have 33000 miles.

You’ve flown 33k miles in 10 days? In Y? That’s impressive man

That said I'm not sure how much it will matter as Delta is looking to monetize all of their first class seats. I think the goal is that 80% will be paid this year.

Disagree - those of us on short hops (EWR-BOS) are cheap flights and short miles but I’m flying st least twice a week every week. Shouldn’t that count for something?

My flights are $1000-1200 a week. Only a few hundred miles each way. Should deff be revenue based for status. I’ve flown 1200 mike flight that cost 2-300 and get way more points than my $1200 flights

Hmm not sure My one flight for an international client visit which allowed business class purchase was the price of at least 15 coach tickets.. On the fence, but it’s not my money lol

Agree, that’s how all loyalty programs work in retail, etc. If you spend more you are, by direct correlation, more important to the business and less of a cost of sale. Why reward the best bargain shoppers, if you only fly low fares you’re likely less loyal anyways.

Disagree. Should be margin.

Let’s distinguish between Qualifying miles vs Award miles, where the latter is where the market is heading towards, say goodbye to mileage runs. Since this OP refers to status, it is usually covered by the former. Many programs will offer status based on segments as an alternative. Just because your ticket cost $1000 for a one-hour direct flight does not mean you are more profitable than a coast-to-coast $500 ticket.