Nonepass is known to be what it is. A super, award-winning (Randy can't stop awarding them Freddys it seems).

777, this was a satirical comment I made. Probably did not come through entirely. I know Randy doesn't personally award freddys...but several years ago, I suggested Randy should put in place criteria that examines the ratio of affinity points/miles issued versus award availability, with some sort of "minimal acceptability" threshold, that if an airline fell below, then it would not be eligible for freddys...after all, who cares how well an airline treats its top-tier elites if one is sitting on a quarter of a million miles and can't find darned base level seats (my case at the time w/ re: to Nonepass) ? In my book, the program is and has been for years fundamentally flawed and arguably fraudulent.

Pleas went unheeded and Nonepass was racking up freddys while this non-elite (yours truly) could not find darned seats like apparently a lot of other travelers, and literally could watch flights out of my local airport w/ empty continental partner commuter seats feeding into their HOU hub. My real experience w/ Nonepass was poor and I watched over and over ultimate greed and arrogance shown by an airline by Continental's opting, over and over, to let seats go unused versus allocate them to base level awards, even if last-minute. Watching this model for years is why I have been so vehement and vocal AGAINST AA's rolling out milesaaver in spring, 2004...because it encompasses the same goals and objectives as what I've watched nonepass evolve into for years...veiled capacity control aimed at forcing award travelers to have to burn double miles to get a seat on the plane. Nonepass just took it to the highest level and has been pretty well outed for their policies over the years, THANKS to this group of flyertalk posters, but *NO THANKS* to InsideFlyer for continuing to bestow freddys on a corrupt elite program.

If the airlines *don't want to honor 25K base leveal awards*, they should be professional and have integrity to just nix the award level. And the implied responsibility by and message to Inside Flyer (IMO) is that Inside Flyer should have the guts to require a given affinity program to have a MINIMUM LEVEL OF CREDIBILITY and GOOD FAITH AWARD AVAILABILITY, measured by some agreed-upon standard, that if, failing to achieve this standard, the airline or hotel would NOT be considered for freddy awards. Once I saw Continental winning freddys, and knew I myself could not get a base level award seat, after repeated tries, the value of the freddy award took a nosedive in my book. If Inside Flyer ever saw themselves as *official Ombudsman* and would-be watchdog of airline affinity programs on behalf of "Joe Consumer", and maybe I misunderstood their role and they did not, then I believe they have failed we consumers collectively in favor of staying in Continental's good graces.

So - my mention was merely satirical - not literal.