Regardless of the underlying merits of the argument, I found this to be one of the most interesting and amusing posts in some time. The original argument had me nodding my head and smiling, so I was kind of knocked over by the seeming vehemence of some of the responses.

Having said that, I recently took 35,000 old US Air miles (actually, these are old America West miles--I haven't flown US Air since it was P.S.A. (smile)--and booked a free round trip from Sacramento to Rome for next February (final destination: Sicily). Took me about 20 minutes to look at their on-line calendar and pick out dates that worked.

So despite my appreciation of the style in which the original argument was expressed, my most recent experience is quite different.

In the interests of full disclosure, some of those 35,000 points came from applying for a US Air credit card two or three years ago. However, I'm hardly a spender in the league of those referenced by the OP, and all of my credit card purchases have gone to Starwood for the past couple of years.

In conclusion, I'm perfectly happy to feel OP's anger at the benefits accrued by those over-the-top spenders, while trying my best to emulate them (smile).