FF programs do not exist to reward us for past business. They exist to motivate us to give an airline our future business. If an airline learns that its program has been more generous than it has to be for this purpose, it will cut the benefits. If it cuts them too far, it will learn that it has harmed its future business and will hopefully restore some. This is all Business 101.

Expecting airlines to maintain current award levels for current miles is like expecting a store to maintain its current prices if you use a gift certificate you already had when the price went up. Neither makes sense. If you buy a $40 gift certificate to get a coffee maker and its price goes to $45 before you get it, do you get upset? Of course not. It's the same with airline miles. (The fact that a few airlines maintained old benefits for existing miles when they made major program changes was an act of business goodwill designed to increase loyalty, not a promise that they will in the future or a reason to do so on the future.)

An award schedule is simply a statement that "right now, you can get this award for this many miles." That's all. Airlines give us 6-12 months notice of most changes, during which time we can get certificates good for another 12 months into the future. That's a darn sight more than any other kind of business you can name, with the possible exception of prepaid funeral arrangements.

While I'm all for not losing the value of my benefits (I have 1.1M AA miles and 400K DL miles in the bank right now), we have to be reasonable about what we ask for in terms of the airlines' business proposition. Just shouting "I want, I want, I want" won't convince Mommy to buy us that candy bar.