I guess it's a real bummer if you're a 74,999 EQM flier.

Personally, it is what it is. I typically fly in the 100-150K range, but a substantial portion of that is international and I usually have CR-1s that go to waste. This year I have 6 unused CR-1s lying around, and I'm not sure if I'll use them with UDU taking care of me domestically.

The bottom line is that whatever the policies of the program, they're going to be better for some than others, and there will always be border regions which result in great irritation if you're on the wrong side of the border. The more you fly, the more you get. Those of us who don't have big personal or corporate budgets to spend on travel should at some level be grateful we are not in a KrisFlyer style program.

Doesn't mean it's nice when things change, but, to paraphrase Sir Alex Ferguson's wonderful take on greener grass, sometimes you look in a field and see another cow and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in your own field, but it isn't.

At the end of the day, we can all vote with our butts, and place them in the seats of the airline (and program) that works best for us. It's really as simple as that.