For some it may be ego.

For me, it's 125% bonus miles, that turn many fares I couldn't justify into a free plane ride, with me trading cash for FF miles. And F is just a bonus.

IMHO, if you don't break the rules, there should be no ethical dilemma. But, if it still bothers you, don't do it. I try not to do things that bother me.

It is amazing people's tolerance for different unethical activities.

1) How would one go about "break(ing) the rules" where MRing is concerned if they wanted to? I haven't heard discussion of breaking any rules, and I wonder how it would be possible to.
2) What are "unethical activities" where MRs are concerned? Again, I don't know what would constitute "unethical" here. Am I simply unaware of what can be done or ethically obtuse so that I don't appreciate those things as "unethical"?
If someone choses not to engage in MRing for whatever their reason(s), fine. No one, however, has made a convincing case that MRing is in anyway "unethical."

Hmmm...

(1) The airline saved money because the flight was not as heavy and burned less fuel.

(2) The luggage arrived faster because there was one less bag to offload.

(3) The airline collected 100% of your fare but delivered 0% of the product, so its revenues went up and cost went down.

(4) The very marginal benefits you receive from your new status probably cost the airline little if anything. More likely that the airline will see increased revenue from your loyalty, i.e. you will be less tempted to fly on competitors because you won't get bonus miles, etc.

(5) Airlines comp, gift and sell status to hundreds of flyers who don't really "deserve" it, as opposed to someone like you who actually earned it (at least 95% of it, anyway, and paid for 100% of it).

I don't see a problem.

I'm sure it's been asked before, but why do the airlines require customers to actually take the flight to get the miles if they're willing to pay for the ticket? Why would they not just take the money from someone who pays but agrees not to fly, and then sell the seat to someone else? Double dough for them.

Perhaps some airline will wise up and allow mileage crediting for tickets when the customer does not intend to actually fly (for a fee, of course). The airlines could call it an advance "Mileage only fee" charged for the privilege of giving them money for providing no primary product. This would certainly give them extra revenue at the expense of the willing miles/points/status addict. MR folks would save by not having to take a vacation or "sick" day, or just not totally waste a day or two of their time. The more I think of it, the less of a joke I think the idea is.

That begs the question: what are the ethics of travel industry providers taking advantage of genuinely addicted mile/point hounds? You know who the junkies are: they slack on work and family obligations to wring out more points and miles, spending money on unnecessary things to get miles, points and status?

Boraxo, your post is way too logical and makes too much sense for a discussion of airline policies.

Why hasn't an airline tried WonderDude's idea? Maybe they fear that FF'ers would find a way to "game" any system they set up. Even one as simple as "Find a fare, book it, inform us that you won't actually fly, and we'll cancel the ticket and award the appropriate EQM's" - they (likely rightfully) fear we'd find a loophole somewhere and share it with the world - sort of like we do MR's today on this board.

But...with MR's today, you kinda have to be in the right place at the right time and willing to actually fly, so even the sweetest MR doesn't attract more than a few people. I can only imagine how many of us would strike the moment someone posts a $175 all in transcon with a circuitous routing if we didn't really need to fly it.

More likely, I can see airlines saying "Buy EQM's for X cents apiece." (Of course, they'd be pricey.) Since they all sell RDM's, and some allow you various ways to prepay or pay to renew elite levels, it might be coming. UA is dipping their toe in the water here with "Choices". One can swap 10 RDM's for 1 EQM. It's unlikely that I would really do it - if I'm sitting at 97k on Dec 31...ask me then. But perhaps it's a harbinger of things to come.

Here's a question, with the alliances--such as SkyTeam, the one with which I am most familiar--it is possible to circumvent minimum stay rules and accrue the necessary mileage and EQM or points. It's easy to nest tickets such that you don't have to satisfy a Saturday night stay. I am sure they could try to end this activity too; however, I don't know when anti-trust issues kick in. Taking advantage of codeshares of alliances might be harder for airlines to police.

Yes, it's almost always best to read that guy's column and figure that the opposite advice is correct "ethically."

I'm not sure I completely understand the specific scenario: it sounds like you are talking about buying 2 tickets - say, one from CO and one from NW - where one of the two is nested inside the other to avoid Saturday night stay rules. Then, you credit the EQM's to the same FF account since they are in the same alliance.

IANAL and I don't know how the contracts of carriage are worded with respect to codeshares and alliances. It sounds illegal for airlines to share passenger data in this way, but who knows...

Although I think basic nesting rules on 1 airline are bogus to begin with (again, they possess the data about what you intend to do at the time you are pricing the 2nd ticket, yet they sell the ticket), but that's neither here nor there. I still wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of getting caught. On the rare cases where I need to nest 2 tickets, I just take the middle trip on a different airline.

i am still having extreme difficulties swallowing that story.
unaccompanied baggage was a no no even before 9/11.
how would you rule it out if you do not check who is on
the plane and who is not ?

They already have this. It's called buying miles.

If you valued your time spent doing MR's, you would find buying miles less expensive than actually flying.

United actually sells status with their prepaid card. Delta sells part status with there AX credit card.

Short

Man, reading these posts makes me think of how good we have it today. Back in the day (or even just fairly recently - say 4 years ago) we never had the option to buy miles, transfer miles or even have the opportunity to accrue the plethora of miles we can today ie. via credit card or buying flowers. Now we have 3rd party online vendors dealing with airlines directly to offer us incredibly affordable prices for the thrill of going somehwere or to top off our miles. I would have never been able to do this in 2000. The way I look at it, ethical issues are a direct result of the rules that we are bound by when we purchase our ticket. I guess the more options we have, the more we are likely to bend the rules.

Sorry, but what we buy is the right to fly, not the obligation to do so. You pay for the right, you do not fly, this is nobody's problem.

I don't think they bothered with it too much. I remember an argument with a UA customer (dis)service agent in DEN summer of 99 who told me that they only tried to match luggage to the manifest if they had reason to believe there was a security risk and that therefore they didn't do it as routine. Perhaps she was trying to pull the wool over my eyes but the fact that she even tried that argument on suggests that things were somewhat more relaxed back then.

But did the OP mention anything about luggage?

nope, but that is not the point :
> how would you rule it out if you do not check who is on
the plane and who is not ?

i have been doing a lot of flying after and before 9/11, but other than in countries like nigeria or libya have never encountered people walking in and out an airliner like you would on a bus.

however, strange things happen.

I take your point.

At least you haven't been subjected to goats and other animals that have been recorded in some sectors of the former soviet union! The closest I got was to luggage being loaded on the rear seats of a Yak42 as they couldn't bother opening the hold! But that's a story for another thread