John Rainy, the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of United Airlines, and former Continental Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, speaking at a Merrill Lynch investors conference had this to say about MileagePlus, “We had certain groups in this program that were over-entitled, if you will.”

“Now we have realigned the benefits of that program with what the customers and the program participants are actually providing to the airline. This is a good change going forward.”

Bottom line: Elite members had a field day on social media sites with the term “over-entitled”. Comments included: “I wonder if he feels $3,000,000 a year makes him ‘over-entitled’?” “I wonder why he would say this out loud.” “It’s bewildering why the guy said that stuff… why would anyone insult their customers like that?” “I believe this was an honest statement of the business model at CO, namely that high-end frequent flyers are not worth the company’s energy if they are buying a lot of cheap seats and require a costly and unwieldy infrastructure to manage them.”