JS, I am not saying it is a reason why people should do it, just responding to the comment that it would be hard to earn that many miles without knowing.

The whole issue just shows how the airlines are trying to control both sides of the pie. The airlines have no problems selling miles to anybody who wants to buy them yet they don't want anyone else selling miles. When United filed for Bankruptcy, the only profitable part of their business was its frequent flyer miles program. American Airlines sold close to $1,000,000,000 worth of miles the previous year. The smart airlines are starting to treat these as advanced seat sales and not as a freebie that "costs" them money. Southwest does very little to discourage people from selling their rapid rewards flight coupons and there are a ton of them up for bid on any given day on E-bay. There is a very large grey market selling/buying miles--most of it can be done very safely if you know what you are doing. The airlines have to realize that they can only do so much without killing the golden goose.

I would not be suprised if the person who started this thread works for an airline is only trying to stir things up a bit.

Southwest is very close to implementing a ticketless frequent flier awards so it won't be as easy to sell anonymous awards. You will actually have to go through the broker process just like other airlines.

In addition, they are cancelling the double credits for online bookings as of December 31. Unlike other years, they will NOT be renewing it this year.

I am very interested to see what effect these two changes have on business. I have a number of friends who were fiercly loyal to WN that will no longer be flying them come Jan 1.

Southwest Airlines went to "ticketless" tickets almost two months ago - and they're still up for sale every day on ebay.

Perhaps the airlines should consider how they can make money on traded miles rather than trying to scare of the customers who earned the miles.

Perhaps inventory on less demanded flights at a 10% premium.

Eventually, Southwest will ban the purchase/barter of Rapid Rewards tickets.

Southwest used to have just two fares in each market -- peak and off-peak. Now they have several fares, similar to the other airlines.

Southwest fares used to be strictly one-way -- never a roundtrip requirement. Then, they added roundtrip required and minimum stay to many of their fares.

Now, the only fares on Southwest that are available as a one way (besides full fare, obviously) is the Internet Special.

Southwest used to be strictly point-to-point (DAL-SAT-HOU-DAL). Now they have hubs -- MDW, LAS, BWI, MCI, etc.

None of this is bad. I'm just saying that as Southwest grows, they have no choice but to stop being so "niche"-y and start being more "major"-y.

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"It's as easy as 1, 2, C" -- Kelly, Married With Children

"Major-y"?

I general-y think that term was colonel-y (as in corn), but perhaps I should have been more admiral-able and e-mailed JS private-ly about this...

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To keep this post appropriate for MilesBuzz!, I hope this post generated a lot of smiles...

You should be corporal-y punished for that post! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Happy belated Veterans' Day! (Nov. 11, aka Remembrance Day in Canada & Armistice Day in Britain.)

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Play the travel game 3 vacations into the future!

Going slightly off-topic on Southwest RR program changes - the advent of Jetblue will keep WN pricing honest. I am not so sure that RR will be overhauled. They are already dropping the double RR credits for online booking so that should bring down redemptions drastically.