I'm sitting at my friend's house right now and we are having a debate. I know this has been brought up in here before....

He works for a company that sends him all over and he stays in Starwoods and flies on United and other airlines. He's platinum or elite and earns these statuses by actually staying at hotels and actually flying segments on the planes. He says he earns it all the hard way.

I, on the other hand, do coins, promos, churns, sign ups, schemes and the like. I haven't paid for a plane ticket in 8 years. I currently have no status (well, I'm gold on AA from millions of churns) and all that.

Why should I have to fight for my free tickets against him?
He says the same thing and claims I'm some sort of ruffian who belongs in coach.

We both do spend money on whatever credit cards we own.

He asks: should there be a two-tiered system for 'hard' points vs 'soft' points?

MM