I'm not a B6 insider, but my guess is they've looked at the competition and figured they're better off without a huge, complex FF program and its associated administrative costs, to say nothing of the liability represented by outstanding mileage balances.

The dino-majors would undoubtedly like to kill FF programs if they could, but they're the only thing left differentiating 'em from LCCs. So instead they are ratcheting them back -- restricting award availability, raising redemption levels, making elite status harder to get -- in ways that outrage the customer base. If I were B6, with lower operating costs, a superior inflight product and a cachet brand, I'd run the most modest FF program I could, too.