Randy, I was not commenting on the difficulty of the question but on the impossibility of keeping harassing questions off of the chats without requiring that they first be vetted. Moreover, that vetting can only be done by the company -- as what you see as not being harassment may well be viewed as such by the guests.

Once they are given advance notice of the questions, even the hardest one can be spinned. For example, let's take the question you cited which was submitted by OrlandoFlyer: "Today we got notification that Skymiles awards on Virgin Atlantic will be terminated next year. Can you give us a reason for this and is it likely that Virgin Atlantic will join Skyteam?"

Give the PR people some time to think about this and you are very apt to get a reply such as, "Yes, we notified you now to give you as much advance warning as possible. It has always been, and will continue to be, our corporate policy to keep our Frequent Flyers fully informed in regards to upcoming changes in the SkyMiles program."

Note that OrlandoFlyer's main two questions were ignored: Why will the awards be terminated and is it likely that Virgin Atlantic will join SkyTeam?

If the questions have to be pre-screened, OrlandoFlyer would be unable to have the follow up question of "I am happy that you are keeping us fully informed, but why were the awards terminated?"

Indeed, that is the very reason why no self-respecting journalist, including those covering the White House, will ever agree to submit his questions before an interview.