1. Seat and upgrade availability, particularly when award inventory often opens up a week or two before the flight, compounded by...

2. how airlines charge "expedite" fees for the extreme hardships they face issuing electronic award tickets less than 21 (or 14) days before departure (AA are you listening?). Can someone please explain to me why issuing a ticket 20 days before a flight is more trouble than issuing one 22 days prior? If anything, airlines should be providing an incentive to fill a seat at the last minute that might otherwise go unused.

3. Devaluation of miles earned, both by increasing miles needed for awards (especially business and first seats) and by flooding the system with people earning miles without flying (but competing for the same inventory).

4. Lack of notification about important changes to programs (usually discovered after the fact because when the airlines do devalue their programs, they bury the announcements), compounded by...

5. Lack of printed membership rules - in the last 2 years most (all?) airlines have stopped publishing the pamphlets that made it easier to understand the intricacies of the programs. It is unreasonable to expect that, any time I want to earn or burn miles I should have to wallow through an airline's web site to find out whether I can use the program the same way that I did last year. By eliminating the rules pamphlets, the airlines can now change anything they want at the drop of a hat (and do) and can regularly default to "that information is contained on the web site" (even when they often can't tell me where to find it).