I said "In" not "On" Regardless, I thank you for reading some of my words. If not all.

Perhaps though you would consider commenting on something more relevant rather than completely arbitrary. But your being from St Louis leads me to assume that you wish to spout your great knowledge of a city based upon horse and buggy rides around Central Park. Were you wearing your Nikes and shorts?

Shouldnt we be more like thanking him for not being as prolific poster as we are blessed with now?

Surprised some here has actually tried to engage in some sort of dialogue

mike

Epic! I love it

Just did awards trip from LGA through IAD to LHR, then LHR to LED, then MOW to NCE through LHR. Then back from NCE to LGA through LHR then IAD. Did it all on awards tickets. Yes, it was a lot of connecting and such. But I got to travel through Russia and then go to the South of France at the height of the summer travel season. If you plan ahead and are willing to make connections anyone who flies enough can use rewards without enormous affinity points.

I live in NYC and know many people who have AMEX Black. None of them fly commercial, rev or nonrev. So I don't think they or their extravagant purchasing habits are to blame.

Shoot me for attempting to be nice. I thought it was an amusing post, perhaps a trolling one, and I'm still not 100% convinced it's not. But if the OP has genuinely re-discovered FT after some time, maybe he'll be able to use it productively. Anybody who flies 175k+ miles a year shouldn't be bellyaching about rewards credit cards - he should be optimizing what's in his wallet and taking full advantage.

So I said, "Friend, can I have your shoes?"

Hmmm, you seem to have misunderstood. I was simply pointing out to pinniped that you are NOT a newbie to FT. However, you seem to have interpreted this in some way that is contrary to what was intended. Intentional?

If those who participate in FFPs have complaints to voice about those FFPs, it is certainly their prerogative to do so and FT is certainly an appropriate place for it. Some will concur in the complaints and the reasoning offered in support of them; some will dissent; and some, like me here, will concur in part, dissent in part. The OP has sparked a lively discussion, and that in and of itself is surely worthwhile.

I don't like, and expect few of us do, changes to the game once it is under way that disadvantage us vis-a-vis the airlines whether through revision of redemption schedules, increased fees in connection with award travel, etc. Nor in general do most like those aspects of the game which seem to give others more generous rewards or relative advantages over them. Some complaints about these things have more merit than others, though.

The OP thinks it is wrong that not all RDM (nor all EQM) comes through actual flying, that instead a good percentage of miles come about through credit card use. Isn't "flying" the airlines core business, he asks, so what are they doing selling miles to credit card issuers to hand out to credit card users, who then turn around to redeem those miles for award travel. And as is so often the case, it is the piggish "rich," who didn't "earn" all their miles honestly through BIS flying, who sop up more than their fair share of award seats, in the forward cabins (where else?). Is it OK with the OP if the airlines bestow more RDM on those who buy full-fare tickets than on those flying on discounted ones, or does he believe that everyone on the same flight, whether in the very front or in the very back, no matter what they paid for their ticket, should deplane with the same amount of RDM for the undertaking?

I wonder if it occurs to the OP that just as he bemoans the advantages of the "rich," others may view the advantages he has over them as similarly unfair. The OP may pay no more for a UA coach seat than others, indeed sometimes less, yet sit an E+ seat by virtue of the elite status bestowed on him by the carrier while they are consigned to cramped E- minus ones. And though the OP may make it to the gate long after them, he will be invited to board ahead of them.

Does the OP, who presumably lets none of his RDM go to waste in the end, appreciate that to some extent he is getting more generous FFP benefits than he might otherwise were it not for "breakage," that is the miles that go unredeemed by "(t)he nice folks who fly twice a year and still write checks for their purchases," the ones he says "might as well walk to their destination as they are never going to get anything free from the airlines." Does his concern for those "nice folks" make him wish that the airlines would sell tickets at a cheaper price to those would take them sans miles, though it would eliminate a cost-shifting that works to his benefit?

I suppose it is a pretty small percentage of people who do not purchase their tickets with credit cards or have their tickets purchased for them by their employer. (If you try to pay with cash, you will get heightened scrutiny, won't you?) People substantially poorer than the OP (yes, I am assuming that few who are upper level elite on more than one carrier are among the poorest) are less likely to use credit cards, so they are helping to subsidize those of us who do and impose those costs on sellers of goods and services to all of us, including non-credit card users. So while he thinks his friend Alan from CA who charges close to $1M is being treated too generously given that he is not "honestly" earning all the RDM that comes to him, and then using them to redeem "standard" awards, the OP might be seen as overprivileged by others farther down the food chain than he.

(BTW, I trust the OP is not a 1K-lite, that is someone who did not obtain that exalted elite status entirely through BIS-earned EQM.)

I'm more with the OP as far as complaints about how the carriers handle award inventory than I am about the way they distribute miles.

No capacity controls? That sounds like a great program. Does anyone know if they have an affinity credit card for this program yet?

Oh, woe is me, United isn't giving you a $4,000 ticket for $500 now because people with oodles of miles are using them. Did you ever stop to think that normal fliers might be saying the same thing about you? I'm sure they talk to their parents and are amazed at days when they might have had a chance at a bulkhead or exit row or an upgrade. It's a little hypocritical for a 1K flier to be whining like this.

If the UA program isn't doing it for you, then change. If flying so many international flights isnt worth it, then get a different job. Those 'rich' that you're talking about DO pay for those tickets. They could easily get a cash back credit card and buy the tickets with the money. It sounds like you're just jealous for no good reason. You get worlds more benefits than the actual traveler, but yes, there are people who may be more important to United than you are. Suck it up.

As for UA reward availability, I went to Australia last year for thanksigving. I have NO UA status at all. None, nada, zip, and I was able to get a ticket in first no problem.

I read the whole OP. It's a whining lot of nonsense IMHO, as several other posters have pointed out above.

And I work about 200 days a year in NYC (and have done for years).

Have a nice day.

Eyechip, I, for one, thought your post was not only funny but also relevant. I travel 80 nights worth a year, yet the vast majority of my points and miles come from credit cards - one way or another.

eyechip,

Color me rich. It's great to be me, it sucks to be you!

Now go make something of yourself, quit the whining & sniveling, and you too can join us elite snobs.

Toodles,

M8

Very well written work of fiction from a poor soul who, like me, lives inside the Beltway. Please show some compassion, fellow Flyertalkers! You have no idea what it is like to have to live here, which is why we are always flying away from DC.

HAH!LOL(very bad of me to laugh at a joke about such things mea culpa)