Again, keeping some perspective would help. We're talking about a system that began as a relatively cheap way for airlines to reward their frequent customers. Most folks traveling for a living did it on someone else's dime. Of course that was before so much "downsizing" where half of the former workforce became self-employed consultants. Airlines doled out miles for you to bank. Your employer paid for the ticket, and you got the miles. Once you started to accumulate miles you had incentive to remain "loyal" to a particular carrier (assuming there was competition on that route). When you earned enough miles, you cashed the miles in for a couple of tickets to treat yourself and your spouse to a nice trip. You got free travel and were happy. The beauty of it was that it basically cost the carrier nothing to make you happy. They generally had excess capacity, so they filled some empty seats.

Twenty-five plus years later, the world has changed. Carriers are parking planes as well as switching to smaller planes on short haul routes to increase passenger loads. Flights are routinely near capacity these days. So an awards seat frequently does actually cost the airline the lost opportunity to sell that seat. Is it any wonder as airlines try to avoid a return trip to Bankruptcy Court that they tighten up on availability of awards seats and do anything else they can to improve the balance sheet? Selling miles to partners is but one way for the carriers to bring in additional revenue. Hell, in the past you had to fly quite a few flights before you racked up enough miles for a free flight. Now you can open some credit card accounts and have enough miles for a flight with your first statement. In the market place that's one big source of inflation. It's the equivalent of a banana republic printing more currency. More dinero chasing a set number of goods leads to devaluation of the currency. Same with miles. Everyone is flush with miles chasing fewer seats. That's the new reality. If we don't like it, we should play another game instead of .....ing about the rules of this game. BTW, there is no "fraud" at play. The T&C for every program clearly state the "rules" are subject to change. Well change is all around. Isn't someone running for high political office on a largely unspecified platform of change?