I enjoy Joe's columns, and am a regular reader. But like anything in life, some folks have different opinions than I, and on this, Joe's opinion is different than mine. I think nako pretty much summed up how I feel about these mileage programs. And I will add that so far (I joined my first program (Piedmont) in 1987 as a teenager), I've experienced little to no difficulty in redeeming miles for exactly what I wanted and when I wanted it.