Indeed it is useless for anyone not travelling solo and given the fact that availability of award inventory has been so severely restricted and in the case of First Class virtually eliminated, the programme is fast becoming worthless as a way to get free travel perks. But while mugs like me or those trapped into flying EK for one reason another keep flying with them and paying their ever increasing fares and supplements and carrier imposed charges why should EK care? I really try hard to avoid them now when I can, but living here in Dubai makes it difficult unless I am prepared to take connecting flights - which I am not, even when the travel is on my own dime. I know that many people advocate the use of miles for upgrades as they are the best value but for me I buy revenue F a lot of the time and when I buy business class there does not seem to be much chance to upgrade these days so I have to try to use miles for tickets but as mentioned above this is becoming very difficult and to add insult to injury when I can snag a seat nowadays I get whacked with a load of fees.