Why would any VF coach flyer pick American Airlines? Very simple... More Room Throughout Coach.

If frequent flyer programs flew out the window tomorrow, I would:

1. Fly Midwest Express whenever possible.
2. Fly American Airlines whenever convenient and available at a low fare.
3. When YX or AA wasn't reasonable, I'd find the most direct routing possible (to minimize the pain).
4. I still wouldn't fly Southwest Airlines. I hate standing in line! At least America West has self-service kiosks to skip the lines with.

You know, I hate to say this but I agree with the guy. Clearly, he is wiser than I, probably better looking, and only thinking about equal fairness for all of mankind.

Therefore, effective this very moment I hereby rescind any claims I have to my five million plus unused miles, agree to send a check to each airline for the full fare amount for every ticket I have ever claimed an award for and also pay the up charge difference for the thousands of free upgrades I've been given over the years.

Furthermore, to make up for my greed and the unfairness bestowed upon me at the cost to this poor guy as well as others, I will also ask for a middle seat in a non reclining row in economy for the balance of my flying career and I will even eat the food given to me regardless of if I'm hungry or not. If any employee treats me nice, I will be sure to point out I don’t deserve it and I will not only stand at the end of the longest line, but as long as anyone else comes into the line behind me, I will let them “take cuts” in front of me until there is no one else left to help other than me.

To all of you that have not achieved elite level with an airline: Please accept my most sincere apology for having succumbed to my greed in accepting these undue benefits from these mean and inequitable airlines and hotels. Can I polish your shoes or clean your tioilet?

If I can receive a refund on the difference between the weekend cheap fare of $225 and the +/-$1800 fare I was charged on over 40 Sacramento-DFW mid-week round trips, then I will give back my 240,000 miles earned on these flights. These non-frequent flier jealous types really tick me off.

Uh, hello? ConAir and Midwest Express do not fly everywhere I need to go. There is, for example, a huge hole in ConAir's schedule -- I can not go to Denver on them. And Midwest Express -- well, their name tells it all, doesn't it?

Plus, with ConAir, there is the issue of the cattle call. I'll be ****ed if I'm going to subject myself to that crap when I'm travelling for my company. I won't do that to myself when I'm flying on my own dollar, the hell with doing it when my company's paying for me to go somewhere.

How do you address the issue that many frequent business travelers would be receiving a higher base salary if they didn't get FF miles as part of their compensation for traveling?

If you take away FF miles entirely or tax them, frequent business travelers would demand higher salaries. These salaries are written off as expenses for the company, reducing the amount of profits generated, hence reducing the amount of taxes paid.

d

Wow, is this really a huge assumption! So if DL takes away my FF miles, I get to demand a higher salary from my employer! Woo-Hoo, I get a pay raise!!!! Did you ever begin to think that I never get to use my miles? OK, I'm travelling some place every week of the year, so what's the absolute last thing I really want to do? Yep - fly some place for a vacation. All of the folks here whining about somebody earning miles and receiving a government funded kick-back at the taxpayers expense puh-lease get a life and do a bit of studying in basic business economics.

But since you probably won't, here's a few key things to ponder ...

* We live in a consumer society, and business is run by what can be sold and make a profit.

* If it isn't profitable (in more ways than simply singling out a specific item for positive/negative cash flow - you have to address the whole cycle), business will not continue to offer this item. See any AMC Pacers today?

* FF miles are not part of my compensation. Period. Never was, never will be (I hope!). I pay a higher price for my seat next to you because I didn't have the luxury of booking it 6 months ago. I fly this kind of fare at least once a month, and your $250 round trip seat is next to my $1800 seat. Go figure how many times you'd have to fly for the airline to make the same $$ from you as they just did from me. Clue: By you not flying, the airline might actually make more!

* Full airplanes do not equal profitable revenue for that flight.

Dinner is calling, and I have a customer report to finish before I fly out tonight ...

GMF

Since you claim to exact zero value/utility out of the FF programs, you're not a member and you don't collect miles, right? (Why do you frequent FT then, anyway?) Being a member of a FF program would give you zero benefit and would do nothing to make your business travel more acceptable. Nor are you interested in using the miles for your personal travel or giving them away, since neither of these activities give you any utility. Hence, frequent flyer programs do not, in any way, compensate you for traveling.

I'd be willing to guess that most frequent business travelers do extract value from FF programs and FF programs do pose a positive utility proposition, possibly in one of the following ways, but without limitation these benefits for elites- (1) faster/better service when calling the airlines (2) faster airport checkin (3) free or discounted upgrades (4) free or discounted access to airline clubs (5) priority boarding, standby and seat assignments (6) FF miles that can be used for free or upgraded personal or business travel (7) FF miles that can be used for friends or family members.


And how is the opening sentence of the paragraph above related to the rest of the paragraph? I can't figure out how it is relevant at all.


Furthermore, you're making a pretty big and incorrect assumption that by leisure travelers not flying, the airline would make more money. Unfortunately, in the real world, airlines don't have high fare paying business travelers taking up 100% of their seats. Thus any pax they can get to pay any fare that's above the marginal cost of transporting the passenger is bringing them additional revenue and profit. Perhaps I'm not the one who needs the economics training.

Airlines also do a thing called yield management. This is a process whereby they overbook flights in anticipation of passengers not showing up. In the event that more passengers show up than can be accomodated, the airline rebooks the passengers who are denied boarding on other flights. As (1) denied boarding is the exception, not the rule for how things operate and (2) airlines don't fly planes at 100% capacity all of the time and are thus able to shift some customers to later flights, the airlines are able to manage their yield and get the highest number of paying passengers on their flights as possible.

d

Like I said - FF miles are not part of my compensation. My contract with my employer makes no reference to my compensation being subsidized by any kind of FF or frequent stay programs. And if next week I suddenly stopped travelling, my employment compensation would remain exactly the same. So I stand by my statement.

I never claimed, as you incorrectly state, that I derive no benefits from a FF program. I only stated that I receive no personal benefits from miles accumulated to date.

I would comment further, but why bother when this will only provide you with another dialog to twist and take out of context.

GMF

Compensation doesn't have to be included in your employment agreement for it to be compensation. I might work in an office that has a young, fun group of people. That's not mentioned in my employment agreement, but I derive positive utility from it, hence it is compensating me for my work.

If you're receiving FF benefits or miles that give you positive utility now or in the future, you're getting compensation. Whether you are using the miles now or not, you still have them and will probably use them in the future. Think of 401k plans, you get little in the way of benefits immediately, most of the benefits are when you cash in on the plan years later at retirement.

If the FF program and miles aren't giving you any utility now or expected utility in the future, you're right, they're not part of your compensation.

If you stopped traveling next week you wouldn't get any miles because miles are compensation for traveling, not for being employed.

Finally, the Defense Authorization Act (2002) allows government employees to keep miles they earn on official travel for personal use. The specific reason Congress and the President added this piece to the DAA was to help compensate employees for having to travel, which takes up personal time. However, despite this being the reason, every one of the tens or hundreds of thousands of employees are not having their employment agreements rewritten to state that FF miles is a part of their compensation, this is obvious.

d

If you buy 3 tires, and Goodyear gives you the fourth one free, so you claim that as income? What if they mount and balance the tires for free? Is that income? Is the person who bought 1 tire (not enough to qualify for any discounts) unfairly paying more than his share because The Man is holding him down?

What about all of those people who go to Costco and buy 400 rolls of toilet paper at one time? They're really sticking it to the guy who buys TP in four-packs at the grocery store!!

There's got to be fraud here somewhere!! (Or maybe it's that thing we call capitalism...how EVIL!!)

As a final note, I heard that this FF banishment bill contains a bit of pork related to surcharges on emails and BB posts. Not sure what that's all about...

FF program is a form of advertisement. When was the last time you have seen an add for AA or Delta compare to Chevy or Ford? When was the last time you brag about your free trip due to your FF program? About that free trip in First Class?