Originally Posted by
LongviewTX
I have probably missed when airlines turned into non-profits and started thinking about your pleasurable experience more than they think about returns to their shareholders.
Whether you like it or not, but airlines are out there on the market place to make money and maximizing the inflow of miles into their FF programs while minimizing opportunities to redeem them feels like hell to you but feels like heaven to airlines' shareholders
I'm all for companies making money. Although it has been an elusive goal for airlines:
The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.
— Warren Buffett, annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, February 2008.
OTOH - it would nice if flying were more enjoyable today. Note that my feelings about flying have nothing to do with FF programs - and sometimes don't even have to do with the airlines themselves - but with third parties - like the TSA. Robyn