I'd only be interested to see government involvement if they just stuck to keeping the airlines honest about their claims of free award tickets or making them more accessible.

Sadly I believe it will grow in scope or result in which the government will either try to tax them directly, or as an indirect result of their "intervention", give the airlines an additional venue to charge for their FFP.

Recall the rise in fuel prices giving way to airlines adding "surcharges"? That certainly gave them a good source of additional revenue.

Sadly, it's easier to take up populist causes that matter little rather than tackle real problems.

If the government does get involved, and I imagine that it won't, it's not going to end well for us. My guess, though, is that Schumer will make a lot of speeches, the airlines will promise to be better behaved and nothing will change.

Mike

Yeah, I'd rather see him and the rest of our elected officials tackle the next gen air traffic control system and put resources into getting that to work... and saving airlines some real money in operating costs. Maybe the benefits of that will trickle down to the consumers. Wishful thinking on both fronts, I know.

Per the article, the miles are valued at 1.65 cents/mile. That is probably a fair valuation. Whether that should be taxable or not is another story.

It's good to know that everything is running smoothly in America and Schumer has time to take a look at this issue!!

Dear Schumer: Hands off! I can manage my own life, thank you very much...
 

The last thing I want is to have the gov't in my FF program. I am perfectly fine managing my own account and I don't find it particularly difficult to do. If there are people out there who can't read the rules or more likely, don't care to read the rules, then that's on them. Just today I tried to take something back to a store that I had purchased on Nov 2, and I didn't realize the return policy was only nine days. Nine days! Who has a return policy of only nine days? Regardless, the onus is on me to be aware and I didn't get a refund.

Expired miles are a benefit to an airline - they represent a decrease in liability. If gov't regulation prevents such a benefit to an airline, the struggling airline industry will coup the now prevented benefit from another source. Care to guess? Increased redemption levels? Higher fees? Who knows? There has already been some of this stuff - want more?

And lastly, if you are under the impression that reward tickets are free, you haven't read the policies. Once again...

I'm all for gov't regulation for things like water and electricity because they're necessities. FF programs, however, are not. Then again, maybe I don't know FTers well enough...

Really nothing more to say here, so I've closed this thread before it gets more political.