Thanks for the support, wormword, however, while I try not to howl, I have been known to get upset. I posted the Carlson motto in a derogatory manner the begining of the horror thread when the negative discount adjustment posted before original points. That would upset many people, whether or not it had anything to do with one of these big mileage bonanzas.

All my points posted in the end and I think the all the belly-aching helped to light a fire under someone's butt.

The problem I have with the fair-play argument is that I truly don't see how you can tell whether or not a program has done its math homework before launching a promotion. Is it unfair to take KLM up on their matching offer if you have millions of points for them to match? Is it unfair to buy hundreds of boxes of Kelloggs waffles at Sams? I don't think so. It certainly makes Sam's Club happy.

Wormword, I think you've gone at least a little bit overboard in trying to make evil-doers out of people who are simply playing the game by the rules (maybe I've been listening to too many Bush speeches lately!). You are trying to deny human nature. Its no different than when a airline charges a businessman $1500 for a last minute trip or when a hotel triples their rate for a special event. This is distinctly different from breaking the rules (e.g. using one FF card for two people or selling and trading miles and upgrade certs). While these activites have uncertainties and gray areas too, they are more problematic from a moral standpoint than simply buying alot of discounted miles, IMHO.

I wish all the mileage police would consider giving it a rest for a while. I suspect very few of us have a completely clean record. Please see my comments in the idiot thread to see how easy it is to find fault with others' behavior.

I also wish everyone would stop starting new GoldPoints threads. The existing topics are more than adequate.

[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 02-19-2002).]