I think the value of miles is ZERO and they should be as free as you can make them!

I still like gigs like the gift card, the ebay AA thing and such. Anything we can do to offset the bad pricing, overly fee-ladened payment systems, and really convoluted unfair backassed regulations currently in place of most of these corrupt and poorly managed airlines will suit me! Their marketing, while sometimes set forth with some tiny bits of good intent, is never up to speed with what really happens (look at targeted promo abuse and unclear bonus posting timeframes for us) and their own staff or reservations people hate that within their own company (gee, and everyone on WallStreet wonders why there's descent). The airlines pass the buck of other responsibilities onto personnel like their own flight attendants or other lower staff members when the chips are down and this bad attitude has to change. Also, they as a whole have had no idea how to handle the onslought of the "new customer" with new found wealth occuring in areas it never existed before. They need to wake up: now it's not just rich jetsetters of the 60s who fly anymore. It's EVERYONE from mom and pop to grandma to students to people with weird long names from Muslim countries who just want to do business but get hassled when they come to this country now. But the majors still think in terms of the old school ways and this is bad.

So for me, I stick it to 'em whenever I can. Sure, doing something that seems knowingly wrong is not supposed to be the correct way to set it right, but I am one man who has seen enough of this crap and the airlines aint listening to people like me right now anyway. But they will eventually. So as long as I can get my miles by both legit and half-arsed means, I shall. Like the stock market of the 1920s, there is no fair regulation and order (like the vague value on these miles themselves). therefore, I think those "in the know" who are savvy to the ways things really play out are those who are reaping, and yes, I plan to remain one of these types of crafty thinkers until they fix their own problems and I have no choice but to conform to it. And if it is done correctly and with all things thought through the way they should be planned, I will certainly conform! Til then, no way!

For now, I will run towards ALL opportunities that pounce on holes in their systems, write letters of complaints when I know it could yeild bonuses or rewards, and do any scheme that makes me miles or points when their systems they actually pay people to set up fails misserably because they have no idea how people really think and act in the average day world!

I am not really like this anywhere else in life with anything else (although I did go to a party college in the 80s so I guess it's always there brewing) but with miles and the stinky airlines, I will grab at anything that makes it as free or easy as possible! Sometimes, just to say I did it! (When on the plane, however, I treat EVERY employee with respect because maybe it's not THEIR fault it's like this)

Finally, I am still among the belief that it was the airlines who KNEW 911 was more likely to happen than not, and they did nothing to even kind of hint to us or anyone else that we should maybe be a bit more on the defensive during that time just prior to it. The result? Now we are all in debt much more than we would have been if everyone sort of stepped back just a tiny bit and had taken a little educational look at the pending issues of being almost attacked say, earlier on in 2001. Seriously, if someone were to tell me I was about to be attacked, I might carry on as usual, but I'd still warn my people a bit and pay a bit more to prepare for what COULD happen. No one did in that industry and I maintain the airline industry did know more than they let on. For this alone, I think I should almost have the right to reap whatever I can from them til they also come clean on these sorts of misgivings. I may be getting into a heated area here and I do not mean to go off topic, but to me, the value of a mile is whatever I can do to make it be as close to possible to ZERO.

So go get as many free or close to free miles you can, share how you did it, be much kinder and more helpful than any CSR from airline X ever was when you approached them in a bind, always fly free or next to nothing, and help everyone you can do the exact same thing every single day.

if anyone wants to discuss the heated parts maybe that should be reserved for PM or email.

that's that.