I listened to Peter Greenberg on the Today Show say that we should use our miles up as the airlines are going to make it harder and harder beginning in 2013 to use them.

Any ideas other than rumors, NO rumors please

Isn't this the case every year?

Thankfully, new redemption and/or earning loopholes present themselves annually as well.

+1.

this time he was really emphatic about it.

Its always a risk. Its why Airline Miles are not the sort've thing you want to keep in your retirement account. Rather, use them whenever you can. My philosophy has been to use them, but try to keep enough for those occasional brass rings, e.g. when SQ upgraded their systems and released award tickets to alliance partners.

Its a balance... But, in the end, nearly everything gets worse... Its like the 'ole Baz Luhrman song says. "Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you�ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders." .... I'd love to see $200 transcons again, and amazing mile redemptions for the LH A380 to Singapore, Tokyo, or elsewhere.

That said, it'd be great for airlines to not devalue their FF programs, or worse, transition to revenue based... But you have to enact reasonable risk mitigation techniques.

Just my two cents.

The other way you can look at it is that for the majority of the FF mile population it is already difficult to navigate an award booking. People that frequent FT or are accustomed to the tricks of the trade so to speak might not notice a huge difference. We have seen an overhaul of SWA's program to revenue and possibly a Delta switchover. BA just switched their FF program and we dealt with it, adjusting will be the key. Life goes on.

Only $200 transcons do happen occasionally.

So we have a rumor, and you want ideas related to this rumor which are not also rumors?

Devaluations happen all the time, but mileage programs are still usually profitable for the airlines. The sky isn't falling, but the world IS becoming overpopulated, or so the theory goes...

There is far too much uncertainty in this country right now to really make any arguments like this. We still do not know for certain if AA and US will merge, and even if they do want to, if it will even be approved. UAs merger is not going smoothly - that may cause the authorities to be leary of approving another merger - if something negative happens with the new UA, it might well cause the airlines to get into another war trying to get frequent flyers. And if we do go over this fiscal cliff, how will that affect the airlines...

I have learned not to put too much stock in what analysts predict. If there is one thing I have learned - business decisions are anything but logical.

Didn't the world end Friday? Have you not gotten the memo from Mayaland? There is no 2013, which is why Peter Greenberg is correct to say that using miles in 2013 will be harder to do.

In general, it will always go the way of being more difficult and more expensive.

But I definitely wouldn't bet the farm on all FF programs increasing rates by 100% and decreasing availability by 50% on Jan 1 at Midnight. Changes will come, and the savvy will adapt.

Always this rumor mill...the sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!

Let's use some logic. Will our miles get diluted somewhat, sure. Airlines need to raise revenue, but they aren't going to [completely] screw us frequent flyers and elite members over. Some will have easy redemption experiences, others not so much. It is the new normal for rewards travel. So instead of posted more rumor laden threads, lets all take a deep breath and save our typing for other "first world problem" rants.

No idea who Peter Greenberg is and unless he has some particular FFP expertise, not sure why I'd put any stock in a vague statement that "the airlines" are going to make it harder. Which airlines? In what specific way are they going to do things to impede redemptions?

He's the CBS News travel "expert."

Seen him on the Today Show before I stopped watching because of Matt Lauer. The guy is like a guru on travel.