I think people have already (at least nearly) stated the pros and cons of each argument in terms of whether one of these companies should be compelled to honor what appear to be mistakes to most people.

In thinking about this, something that has never been brought up (I don't think) is what are the characteristics of different people holding different opinions. For example, population sample group X., basically is on the corporations side, while sample population group Y. is on the side of the person(s) who try to book $0 or $29 goods and services. What are the characteristics of aperson that determines whether they fit more closely with group X or Y? E.g. income, education, age, sex, area of country, childhood, type of job, type of life experience, ,kind of car ddriven, rent/own, how many credit cards, etc? Are there demographic, sociographic, or other variables that broadly can be used to put a person in these hypothetical group X or Y?

I would theorize (and perhaps we even have people in the market research industry who could ellaborate) that it has something to do with the member of the populations overall experience in his/her life with corporate America. Like let's give a good example of the point:

We take two groups of 100 people, and tell them in 15 minutes the story of how 300-room-guy booked 300 rooms for $0. Or how whatever-girl booked 100 tickets to CDG for $29 each.

100 of our research subjects are employed by major corporations, and are paid $250,000 or more each year.

The other 100 research subjects are homeless, and all have recently been arrested for loytering in a bank ATM kiosk/doorway.

I theorize the the first group of 100 would side with the corporation, while the second group of 100 would side with 300-room-guy and whoever-girl. Both would feel very strongly about the position they hold.

This is a far-flung example, but it illustrates, how one's life experience with corporate Ameirca may impact how one views such ethical issues. Most people don't make $250,000 plus, and most people haven't gotten arrested for loytering in an atm kiosk...but everyone overall probably has either had generally good or generally bad experienced overall with corporate America. Maybe its not even just corporate America. Has the person had a generally good or generally bad experience with "the system," which means the institutions of society. Those are family, education, employment, politics, and religion.

Most Flyertalkers (at least the people that post to the board) seem to fit in to group X which sides with the corporations generally in questionable situations. I don't know much about the people that read and do not post. It would also seem, that in general, people with status in all of these programs would generally have higher incoems than average. Otherwise how would the people travel so much, etc. to be say Plat/Diamond/etc. Also we cannot forget about age. If we had 100 19 year olds, and 100 49 year olds and we told them the stories about our mysterious guy and girl...would the 49 year olds be more likely to side with corporate America all other factors being equal. Does anyone know of any research studies done in these areas? Is it broadly life experience with the institutions of society that puts a person in these groups, or is something else a much more important factor in assigning group membership?