I was thinking of starting a thread titled, "What's life like after elite status is no more?" Subtitled, "I chucked the whole FF thing and lived to tell about it."

Frankly, for a price concious traveller, programs that have only one domestic airline can be very difficult to stick to. I absolutely *love* SkyTeam, because I have FOUR domestic airlines from which I can earn EQM's on. Someday, I think there will be a shakeout and some airlines will merge. After all, if there becomes transparent benefits among DL/NW/CO such as receprical club agreements and reciprical upgrade agreements (we're partially there on both counts), at what point does the color of the airplane's paint matter?

I think FF programs are here to stay, however. There's $$$ to be made in non-airline partner miles, and status *does* keep people within a couple of different airlines -- it does for me, for without it, I would actually fly the carrier with the best fare and schedule to fit my needs, instead of paying a little extra to NW for the upgrade, or spending extra time on airplanes to accrue miles.