I think LTS is a good sustainable idea (for all the reasons Sam mentioned) and they don't need to remove Family Pooling to do it.
Why people keep thinking one persons benefit needs to be trashed to provide another persons benefit is beyond me. All they need do, is base LTS on the members own account (not pooled SCs), like they do with elligible sectors. If AFF is any guide to the industry, younger flyers would appear to make up the majority, so ditching family pooling may alienate many of those younger flyers. Family pooling is also one of the very few schemes that VA have over QF. People keep saying VA should not emulate QF but then when the chips are down, state "ditch the difference we want the same"! Both can work with little extra cost to VA. Remember, continuous high tier flyers are more likely to NOT want to fly in retirement so LTS is not such a huge thing, but when they do need to fly, they are still tied to the airline who will give them a bite to eat pre-flight and priority boarding.
As for family pooling, I think it should stay (for the resaons given above) but it doesn't really help me. I make gold off my own flying, but even when family pooling I wouldn't reach plat under normal circumstances. That only occured with some bonuses like reward SC promos and it also meant we're flying flights I wouldn't have normally taken (both reward and paid)......doesn't that work for VA as well as me? They get rid of the reward overhead and earn some revenue too!
