I normally fly every week, but have not flown for the last couple of weeks and have been out of the "news" loop because of an unexpected death in the family.

To my knowledge, my company has not weighed in on this issue to its employees (although, since I hve been out for two weeks, I have not gotten through all of the e-mail), but, since I am a consultant who flies to the client every week, I would assume that this "use it or lose it" policy will cost my corporate clients a lot of money.

I have been in this position since 1999 and initially flew fully refundable fares because of the uncertainties in my schedule and the small difference in the cost between fully refundable and non-refundable fares. As the difference between refundable and non-refundable fares as increased (at least in the areas to which I fly), I have changed to the non-refundable fares, with the knowledge that I can pay a fee and utilize the tickets in the future if that need arose.

Now the airlines that have asked for and received my tax dollars after September 11 and have removed any semblance of service from their flights are going to charge me a fee or cancel my ticket altogether if I arrive late for the flight or if I want to get on an earlier flight that has seats available.

We frequent flyers have endured a great deal as a result of September 11, but have continued to fly (in my case, almost every week). We are the bread and butter to the airline industry that says "after September 11, we don't have enough passengers," yet the airline industry continues to make it more difficult for frequent flyers to fly in a manner acceptable to clients, etc. or even in a manner that provides a decent meal.