Email campaign to ban frequent flyer programs
 

I received this forwarded email this morning. I find amusing and horrifying at the same time.

I predict I will not be losing any sleep over this one. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[quote]<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by B747-437B:
I received this forwarded email this morning. I find amusing and horrifying at the same time.

Quote:

The airlines need to terminate these "clubs" immediately. I cannot stand passive and allow my hard earned money to be used for someone else's vacation, or for someone else to fly in First Class. /QUOTE]

Interesting how he complains about paying for someone else's vacation, yet fails to explain exactly how his money is used that way. Obviously he thinks his tax money being used for the bailout somehow directly benefits us FF's in the form of free travel. Personally, I think his logic is severely flawed.

Last time I checked, I have to pay for my own vacations, which I think sucks http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif. But what are you gonna do....

Brings to mind a great quote from Mark Twain - "It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt." Or something like that.

Whatever this person does for a living, whatever his or her lifestyle (short of a loincloth in a jungle), he or she surely patronizes some businesses on a regular basis and is rewarded for doing so. Maybe it's something as simple as a card they stamp every time you buy a cup of coffee that gets you a free cup when you have six or ten stamps. I wonder what he/she thinks the difference is between that and what the airlines do? Do I hear any complaints that the taxpayers are, in some unexplained, mysterious way, subsidizing that "free" cup of coffee?

I'm with geo1004 in not losing sleep over it. Congress's priorities aren't always mine, but I suspect they have other things on their mind these days.

I don't even want to think about that email for one second (beyond the time needed to reply here of course!), but to answer your question re: free coffee, I would guess the writer would point out the Government has not forked over large wads of cash to Starbucks so that it can stay in business.

In any case, that email is total nonsense.

------------------
Getting closer to 2000 posts, one meaningless post at a time.

The joker who wrote that must have way too much time on his hands. If he really wants to save the government some money, why doesn't he write to his Congressional reps and ask them to stop the program to hand out $1.8 million to the families of those who died in the terrorist attacks?

Don't get me wrong, what happened to those folks was horrible and an atrocity. But you know what, some $250K a year bond trader ought to be buying life insurance, and if he didn't, I really don't feel compelled to pick up the tab for him.

It looks to me like a cunning device to harvest email eddresses of the extremely stupid for the purpose of selling them a 'Phone Zapper' or 'Gerber Life Insurance for children'

edited to add - No offence to any FTer of course.

[This message has been edited by RDY3238 (edited 03-08-2002).]

I don't know much about this, but . . .

Does life insurance cover this sort of thing? I thought that most policies said that they do not cover deaths that are as a result of war, if declared or not.

With the govt calling 9/11 an act of war, does that make it official?

That e-mail writer sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me. He needs to join FlyerTalk and learn some ways to earn miles.

Guys, guys, guys, wait up....
I heard that the FCC will be imposing a Modem Tax soon, too -- no more BBS'ing!!!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

Let's see: bozo email campaign vs. airline lobby. Not a fair fight by any means.

This is highly inflammatory! Moderator!!

P.S. I am not onbnoxious, nor do I brag about my miles ... I simply gloat discretely in First Class.

He also failed to mention that business travelers (who earn the bulk of FF miles) also pay super high fares.

While I agree that the airlines should probably pay back the $5B in cash at some point in the next couple years, getting rid of FF programs will cost the airlines more than it will save. AAdvantage makes a fortune from its partners.

And he wants to close airline clubs? The airline clubs we pay a yearly membership fee for? If that's a good idea, we should be able to close other things people have paid for. Let's close this guy's house.

Maybe you should reply to whomever sent you this nonsense with a link to this thread. Education is important.

d

My understanding is that most life insurance companies were paying out for 9-11. Some stated that it was an act of good will, etc.

As for the original email... I can think of a lot of other things that the government "subsidizes" in a much more direct manner than FFers. Hmmm, seems the author has a lot more emails to write.

Last I checked the airline bailout was yesterday's news anyway.

What utter nonsense! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif I would like to think that this is someone's idea of a joke, but unfortunately, there really are individuals who think this way. I would add more but I have to go next door and tell my neighbour that I'm off on another trip at his expense! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif