Originally Posted by
avidflyer
Why you are "amazed" that people would make flying decisions based on a FF program. For the general public I 100% agree with you but this is where our location matters. Here, in a forum for just the most avid (yuk) of the FF program zombies (and I call myself one), it is to be expected that the audience DOES care.
There are MANY who feel the program changes are not good. There are a few who LOVE the changes...but at the end of the day we are all here to discuss the Delta "Miles and Points" program. It is COMPLETLY understandable why when the vast majority of the people who are here to maximize their points are handed a change(s) that puts them worse off than they were last year they are not happy about it. They may or may not do something about it but certainly you can understand why there are some upset folks.
Just as you will say "whining" will not change a thing because Delta is making record profits I would say lecturing people about why a FF program is no way to pick an airline, in this particular space, is just as futile.
I'm not surprised that the many in the FT crowd make purchase decisions based on the FFP. Not one bit. I'm also not surprised that many people here care about and are upset by any given change to a FFP.
But, especially since I tend to think the FT crowd is, as a whole, of better-than-average intelligence, I
do find it surprising that I continue to see many posts where people are concluding that such-and-such airline will go down the drain due to its new FFP, thus implying that the FFP drives purchase decisions for a much wider swath of its customers. Perhaps it's actually just a handful of posters who post "loudly" and repeatedly - I'm guilty of not always look at who is posting each and every comment.
In this sense, I think you and I actually agree. My issue is not that people on FT care, it's that some people on FT seem to think that the rest of the world cares, as well.