I agree with you Koko. Getting that free vacation has gone too mainstream. Just look at all the newbies with hundreds of thousands of miles from credit card signups. They only post here when they can't figure out what to do with them.

Not only ha UA devalued, but IMHO, Hyatt will as well. I don't follow other airlines, but it appears that the bulk of miles are coming via the Chase UA cards.

I also place the blame squarely on the bloggers and their schemes to get people to the maldives for $100 BTW - FT itself has a hand in the problem. There are referral links everywhere you look these days. But I said it when IB bought the place, Randy did it for love and IB is doing it for profit. In the end, it is us, the longtime members who built this place (& newbies too) who pay the price.

Right now, it doesn't affect me (much), but I'm burning my miles, and will be looking for alternatives to the places I travel most often. Too bad I'm pretty much an EWR captive (out of laziness).