I have not flown regularly for business for over ten years. Based on what I read on FlyerTalk things have changed. Admittedly most of my tickets where full fare. The stories I read from people who fly much more than I did are bad. I almost always received a courtesy upgrade on routes I flew regularly. A high percentage of times I was upgraded by presenting my business card. My father, long deceased, was always upgraded to First on his regular trip, one or two times a month, between Los Angeles and Houston, Continental. On my regular route, once a month or more, between Los Angeles and Washington DC the crew knew almost all of us that boarded the 6 pm flight on Friday. We had dinner and drinks plus some extra drinks within an hour and it was lights out Have the bean counters put a stop to all this. I, my company, spent tens of thousands of dollars on my travel each year. Although they were cost conscious, they also recognized that employee travel needed to be tolerable if not a vacation. As to the accumulation of miles maybe I was naive during those years. I had no time to take vacations and was accumulating plenty of miles without trying. I was much more concerned with having a comfortable seat and getting to my next destination. In today’s environment can an airline provide the kind of experience I had and still successful?