and let's be sure to shout this over the rooftops as long and as hard as we can, given that nothing is final yet, there is still plenty of time for adjustments to be made to prevent transfer in/transfer out fluidity.

I for one know that I expect Amtrak to act as my laundry and certainly none of the loyalty programs actually can expect that the people with huge piles of points in their respective programs are actually loyal customers.

The blind greed shown by some will do horrendus damage to FF programs that DO benefit loyal, revenue-generating (even more than that...a customer that generates a profit) customers. The whole idea of FF/hotel programs is rewarding loyalty without cannibalizing the core business (read revenue)... Give away the perishable product with a minimal marginal cost. They were not designed to be, nor can they tolerate, being anything else