What an absolutely outstanding site!!

They've really put a lot of thought -- almost Machiavellian -- into this whole idea of frequent flier programs and how to capture the hearts and minds (and pocketbooks) of fliers, and which ones are worth the effort.

Oh, the concept of "firing" low-yield, highly complaining customers is nothing new (although they have some sneaky ideas of how to go about doing that), but they're light-years beyond that! Take a look at the following two articles:

Why are the most hated airlines so profitable?

This article raises some interesting thoughts. Among them: Is SMI/J really being very clever, and trying to set our expectations low through experience just so he can begin a campaign of exceeding them? If so, he's doing a fantastic job so far, and I can't wait for Phase II to begin.

Airlines are from Mars, customers are from Venus

This one is also very thought-provoking, and may explain certain airline behavior that seemed inexplicable to me. The whole concept of a “hackable” company is very interesting, and may even work very well when companies figure out how to really "mine" social media. It also may show a hidden motive for the "like us on facebook" campaigns.

I'm bookmarking this site and going to keep an eye on it even though I'm not in the type of job they're obviously pitching their articles to -- if anything, I'm the experimental animal in the maze, and I can learn a lot from the thinking of the experimenters.