Just curious, why do so many assume that only young, college-age people care less for perks and more for getting there? (I suspect that I am older than most of you -- early 50s.)

I also travel on business, although nothing like some of you who spend 100s of days a year in the air. You have my sympathy!

To politely continue the discussion, why do so many of you contend that *you* deserve special treatment when it's your company paying the bill? (This excludes self-employed road warriors, obviously.) If your company bought a fleet of Caprice sedans, would the employees who drove them expect special treatment from Chevrolet? If your corporation buys all its cabinets from Steelcase, do you expect a nice new desk for your home?

I think the resentment, if any, of not-so-frequent travelers is that this is a zero-sum game. Special consideration for Titanium Exclusive members means less-titled travelers get less attention. I've seen discussions on these boards about the audacity of proles trying to use overhead bins and WC above their "class". Arguments about whether it's proper to keep all of Coach travelers in their section until the Upper Classes have gotten off the plane. A Super Duper Traveler spends ten minutes with a gate agent trying to wrangle upgrades, and the next traveler gets short shrift. Or FC desk agents stand around while commoners wait in line for one over-worked agent. A new kind of class warfare?

Recently, in Austin, there was an interesting story about a popular local restaurant (Matt's El Rancho) being so crowded that some long-time customers were trying to get earlier seating by pointing out that they had been going there for 20-30 years, etc. The response was almost unanimous that the long-timers were pushy so-and-sos, and they should take their chances on seating with everyone else. Restaurant mgmt forebid staff from giving such special treatment.

Sorry for the long post -- I suspect the sides will never agree, but it is an interesting discussion!