interesting thread & welcome to FT, haydensydney.

I think from a business perspective, this is a fascinating example of pure marketing at its best. Portal marketing and relationship building are now the core of the entire system and it's evident in the fact that we have alliances with airlines themselves, as well as several hundred non-flight partners going beyond just hotel & car (or merely 'travel-related') entities. Why, I think I once saw that you could get airline miles for giving blood! the business of miles has reached everything indeed, so ^ for market exposure!

It is obvious to me that nearly every 'points' program I can think of in the US today, at least, is based on the same general concept as the FFP as we know it right now. Hefty dababases run by today's more complex computers have made this more accessible and user friendly for business. Everything can be tracked so that CO magic mentioned above is exactly that to the untrained eye. As well, everything depends on another part or partner to exist and sold as a trail to follow (or a journey in itself) for the eager consumer searching for the trick to follow it! If the consumer is led to believe he/she can 'win' then he/she will play a lot more. Simple. In this sense, everything is based on a rebate scheme mentality, whereas the consumer perceives the ultimate savings when initially-and eagerly willing to pay more for the product. One receives the miles as the 'rebate' in the case of the FFP.

Now, some could argue that most economy airline tickets are often lower than they could be in terms of overall cost to the consumer, but some business or first class tickets are much higher than many consumers think they ought to be and so this may balance that out. As well, some here have noted that whenever flight prices have gone down, mileage requirements have gone up and/or redemption options have altered (in some cases, diminished) to balance it out. I cannot be sure of either of these but I do know that the airlines obviously still want people to still pay money for their tickets over the use of mileage awards.

Well, I hope that had some validity to it...
I am going to try to think more from this perspective, because many in FT know me here as the 'consumer advocate wanna be,' so maybe this thread will be a much needed burst of opposite thinking just for the sake of it. I hope I'll last.

MM