A better informed consumer would be bad for travel hackers. That's all I'm sayin'...

I fully concede that transparency and disclosure would be better for the average consumer. I'm just greedy about the small bit of information arbitrage that we still have in "power user" groups like this. That's all...

We rely on those billions of miles paid for but never accrued because the person didn't bother to sign up for the FFP. We rely on those billions of miles that expire. We rely on those people who redeem for a 50,000-mile Y award to Orlando. We rely on people who redeem out of those merchandise catalogs. Without all of this, our favorite long-haul F/J awards either don't exist, are impossible to get, or cost 5-10 times as much.