Originally Posted by
gooselee
This +1,000. It continually amazes me how many people on FT fail to recognize that for the vast majority of passengers, the primary decision factors in what airline/flights are taken are aligned to routing, schedule, and price - NOT FFP rewards. The goal of air travel is transportation from A to B, not accruing an imaginary currency that could be taken away (not devalued, just straight taken away) at any given time.
Those rewards are nice, of course, but they are nothing more than the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.
I haven't seen people here argue that FT represent the majority of travelers. Sure you get some hyperbolic posts predicting DL's downfall will come as a result of SM devaluation, but those certainly aren't the mainstream of FT - it may strike a chord and stick in your mind, but it's on the fringe.
My advice: don't be amazed by people making decisions you don't agree with, life's too short to get stressed about that. I live in a state without a motorcycle helmet law and see lots of these guys screaming down the freeway, locks a flowin' (well they're usually bald) - at first my reaction was 'continual amazement' but eventually I realized there's nothing amazing about it. They were given a choice and they made it. Stupid choice? Perhaps. But why the hell should I care.