Bottom feeders have been getting a bad rap in some of the threads, but I personally embrace it as a compliment. This year I've been away from home 25% of the time (~92 nights) all for leisure travel.

I'm not fantastically wealthy either, working 15-20 hours a week with a full course load in school. So yes, in fact I want to spend the least amount of money on travel. Flexibility is of no value to me so I have no use for Lat fares. I've flown in the back plenty of times and expect I will be flying long haul in the back again. AC set the criteria, I jumped through the hoops and got a decent set of benefits in 2010. All my segments on AC this year have been upfront with the exception of one short haul, all off the lowest T+ fares (and an olympic promo 2-for-1 M fare). Moreover even if I had chosen to spend the money on more expensive fares, it would of gotten me 0 benefit. By avoiding the busiest travel days of the week all of my upgrades cleared without issue, and there were still empty seats in J for all of my long haul flights.

Being a bottom feeder is true to the spirit of Flyertalk, maximize benefit minimize cost. Next year my main loss will be the Tier bonus, but I'll maintain at least a r/t in J and probably have credits left over if they do a summer promo for reduced credits.