I must say that, despite being married to Mileage Plus for more than 20 years, I have to agree with your first point, in particular. That and being able to do short notice freebies, and change them at will, and not have to pay extra fuel surcharges. Definitely turned my head, after jumping into Southwest's Fall Madness with all the bonuses in 2007... I think that, with the "legs" adding all their recent "enhancements", Southwest is standing taller and taller. (Well, except for their recent devaluation.)

But now we hear Mr. Kelly say that Southwest is planning a major overhaul of its program.