Good article Randy, but can I quote you out of
 

Context?...I agree you can get miles from a lot of things, but they're hard earned regardless...
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...ebt/P47545.asp

“…However, many people can't redeem the miles from the carriers as fast as they can earn them, says Petersen, who is CEO of a number of travel-related businesses besides AirGuard, including Inside Flyer magazine.

"In the original frequent-flier programs, you could only earn miles by flying," he says. There were no partners offering miles for hotel stays or credit card purchases. "Now, you can walk out your front door and earn miles. … We've become spoiled because they've made it too easy to earn miles."…”

Hard earned? It is relative. Now it is far easier to earn miles than in the past, when the only way to get miles was to fly. I earn thousands of miles each month even if I do not fly at all.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum21/HTML/009164.html

Now *that's* hard earned.

Devil's advocate here:
If it's so easy to earn'em it should be easy to keep them thus to insure them? Air Guard status?Bueler, ...Bueler...anyone...anyone...

And I think we might at least agree .02 is the going rate or earning them. You spend your .02 I'll give you a mile. No matter how you slice it it's still my .02 buying the mile, and I worked just as hard for the .02 I spend on air travel as the .02 I spend on my BoA Visa.

There's more exposure to earning your airmiles or hotel miles, but I see "easy" as a relative term. There are more avenues now to earn my airmiles, but my .02 is no easier to come by now, than it was 4-5 years ago. Cost of living and inflation, raises, okay I guess I'm arguing semantics, ergo, "out of context" Maybe I just wanted to have a discussion. One last thought and I'll shut up,...EBay's mile program, and the amount of miles to redeem the same trips from years ago has gone up by as much as 40%, so I see that as soon as someone figures out a way to earn 100 more miles, someone else figures out a way to charge you 1000 more on there end. "As soon as someone figures out to idiot-proof an item, they come out with better idiots" Okay, I'm done...