Most AA pax are enthusiastic about the airline's decision to increase legroom in coach class but some FF's wonder if the extra space may limit their ability to fly for free. Steve Brooke, a software engineer from Dayton, Ohio, says he is pleased that the airline has chosen to remove seats from its planes to increase the comfort factor in economy class, but he's decided to use most of his 500,000 miles to claim free travel on AA's partner airlines instead...

According to Randy Petersen, editor of InsideFlyer magazine, 1999 was the first year when FF partner companies, rather than pax, accounted for a majority of AAdvantage miles issued. "American has always been among the most liberal in terms of the percentage of people flying on free tickets," he says. "Now they can make more seats available because the partners have paid for them already."

Companies, ranging from Citibank and Countrywide Home Loans to Golden Bear Golf and Kellogg, purchase miles from AAto encourage consumers to sign up for their products or services. Consumers no longer have to fly in order to fly for free: they can rack up substantial mileage balances by signing up for a long-distance service or eating Cracklin' Oat Bran.

Mr. Petersen estimates "partner miles" accounted for 58% of the total AAdvantage mileage earned last year, the average for other major airline programs is closer to 40%. Partners pay anywhere from a half-cent to two cents a mile for the right to award AAdvantage miles to their customers. "Those seats may be free to passengers, but we're making money on them," says Mr. Kienzle.

This was not always been the case. When FF programs first took off in the mid 1980s, there were no partner miles, and a frequent-flier seat represented potential lost revenue. As the frequent-travel industry expanded and became more sophisticated, airlines began to use programs not only to reward passenger loyalty, but to generate income.

Now that the programs have evolved into a profit center of their own, airlines must cater not only to top fliers, but to a new class of clientele with corporate clout...
http://travel.wsj.com/n/SB955636899771783201-main.html

I'm Steve Brooke. I was contacted by the WSJ journalist and agreed to a phone interview. I'm not a frequent poster to webflyer but did reply to the AA seat removal announcement. So I'm assuming I was picked due to that post. I expected to just be one of many people interviewed. I was floored when the article came out and I was quoted in the same article as real industry experts like Randy. I guess it's my 15 minutes of fame. A friend of mine sent me the article or I might have never seen it. Hopefully I didn't sound like an idiot.

Steve--good point. And as far as AA goes, I think you are right. And it is only going to get worse with American's new deal with AOL. Can you imagine how many new FF miles they are going to be distributing when they make AA miles the new currency of the internet, as they claim to do. I think demand for FF seats is going to explode. I am even worried about what it is going to do to US Air seats, since AA miles can be used there too.

Djlawman

I was contacted for this article and gave a really good response, or so I thought. I got my 15 minutes in the closet now!

Laura Costello called me too. I guess I didn't tell her what she wanted to hear. It's almost like she wrote the story (or had it in mind) and then just trolled this board until someone could serve as a quotable reference for it.

Ahhh, the free press!