Actually to explain Southwest Rapid Rewards ranking. I happen to think they have a great program for the market they serve. What happens when a comparison like the USA Today article comes about is that there are certain standards within these programs that Southwest falls away from. For instance, every other major program (from Aloha to Midwest Express to Alaska, etc.) has an elite level program to essentially differentiate between the better customers and those that are just today's passengers. Southwest has chosen not to do that. Also, those same programs mentioned above don't fly international routes, but have established relationships with other carriers to allow some sense of awards beyond their route system. I rmember a number of years back when American West introduced service to Hawaii only because it was an award destination demand. Southwest has chosen not to align and offer international award partners. If you were to factor out those two standards, Southwest does as well as anyone, and they do a very good job with their program. However, the comparison of programs for USA today did not allow an exemption and thus they were dunned in these categories, bringing down their whole rating. Should Southwest have to offer these types of benefits to their members? Not really, if what they have works for them and I beleive it does. But these two items are really standards in the industry and in the case of USA Today, they decided to measure across the standard. I would say that the main reason that elite level programs is a valid standard is that there is a time when awards aren't always the measure of loyalty, it's the benefits that sometimes outweight a frebbie and without an elite level program, there's not much with Southwest to fall back on, other than the realization that you bought a ticket that promises to get you from Point A to Point B.