"If you're flying on an airline and you're buying a lot of tickets on that airline to get miles, we found it can be cheaper to fly on a low-fare carrier and not even worry about the miles," McGee said.

Not only that, but the discount carriers (Southwest, Airtran) have far less restrictions on their award tickets. Once passengers turn their backs on the Little 6's FF programs, they truly are done.

So many miles...so few seats.