I don't think FF programs cause our current woes in any way except one.

Airplanes are more crowded but air travel is more accessible. Twenty-five or thirty years ago only the rich could contemplate a weekend in Europe or indeed most of the pleasure jaunts we call "mileage runs." And who among us would deny enjoying more time in first class? Air transport in the United States has become an egalitarian utility. Frequent flyer programs soften the blow of egalitarianism.

Where FF programs hurt is here: when they complicate a frequent flyer's decision to take his/her business elsewhere over bad service.

Any old fare sale can fill the coach cabins of the worst airline with price-sensitive bargain hunters. But when full-ticket prices zoom way beyond the reasonable and service standards plummet, an airline's most important (read: lucrative) customers are far less likely to do what they ought to do and walk away. (Look at the United Mileage Plus addicts who rationalize any and all UA outrages and keep driving towards that 1K goal.)

In THAT sense, frequent flyer programs impede service improvements and insulate an airline from having to prioritize service. Miles are the opiate that anesthetize an airline's key loyalists to the manifold abuses they suffer.

UA is having a horrible, grim year, driving thousands and thousands of people to the brink of rage or hysteria. And everyone knows it. Yet UA claims blandly -- and bizarrely -- that "customer service is our top priority," while noting record profits. They don't have to acknowledge that they're crippled and dysfunctional. They can lie at a macro level (in the mass media) and at a micro level (at the boarding gate). And because frequent flyer programs keep people coming back regardless, they get away with it.

THAT hurts the industry, and us.