^

I've never read this guy. I don't think I want to.

Maybe he has a bit of a point. I think he's touching on three somewhat separate (but related) issues:

(a) The FFP industry is evolving to treat the points/miles themselves as a limitless currency. They sell them in more ways than ever and are bringing people into "the game" who wouldn't have been in 10 years ago. Yeah, we had partner miles then as well, but they were always used to augment our flown miles. In 2013, every mainstream website that discusses credit cards must discuss frequent-flier miles and hotel points or it's an incomplete website. Thus a larger pool of people who don't actually travel frequently are participating in the FFP process. This gives rise to blogs and has over the years changed the tone of this forum dramatically.

A few years ago, the front page of Milesbuzz would mostly be the hottest current airline promos - who's doing a DEQM, who has a popular route on a segment bonus, who has a special award offer, etc. Maybe the occasional hotel or rental car promo would slip in.

Today it's all credit cards.

(b) The FFP industry has also evolved to take away benefits from the low- to mid-tier flier and focus attention on the top tier. The experience "in the back" continues to get worse while the experience in the front ebbs and flows - sometimes better, sometimes slightly worse. So in the back, it seems like the gap between haves and have nots is only getting wider. Thus when an F passenger complains about improperly served wine, it really pisses off someone who always flies in the back. (Question: what are you supposed to do if the flight attendant is abusing a perfectly good bottle of wine by serving it incorrectly? )

To be fair to the airlines here, they actually are attempting to genuinely sell J/F seats in more cases now than ever. I *almost* bought F yesterday for a flight in March: it was less than 2x what Y was (narrowbody service). I've seen TATL J in the $3k R/T range, albeit carefully firewalled from the business travelers with long advance purchase requirements. So there may be a day when it swings the other way: nobody gets upgraded because all the seats are sold at actual rates the market will bear. The top-tiers are brought back to the rest of us because any non-elite can outright buy J/F.

If Elliot has a legit beef, it's that the airlines have intentionally (IMHO) made the non-elite travel experience as awful as possible. The level and quality of customer service at every possible touchpoint is bad enough to make cell phone companies and cable operators blush.

(c) Some people are d*cks, and some of these people get especially d*ckish online. I definitely see it on these boards - view any complaint here and people frequently talk a lot bigger game than they would in real life. That's true on almost any type of online forum.

He probably wants his readers to cut up their FF cards and CCs so that there is less competition for the awards offered....he wants to be the one in F or Business, and the hoi polloi is messing up his upgrades.

I've exchanged a few emails with Chris. His thesis -- that miles/points -- depreciate over time is flawed because smart people figure out ways to get far more miles/points than they have in the past.

I guess he has a problem with cash too then.

I am pretty sure it is the airlines (and the economic conditions they find themselves in) making economy class travel wretched, not elite frequent flyers...but YMMV.

You mean Cabin Boy? I thought he was a comic. Is this one of those Stephen Colbert things?

Don't know if anyone remembers Southern Airways, which merged to form Republic Airlines in 1979 and later merged with Northwest. Southern was an all-coach airline, but of course they branded themselves as the airline where no one was second class.

You might want to watch the three commercials that are on the page I've linked here.

All three commercials address the "envy" and belittlement factor of having a first class cabin. And all three suggest that the extra legroom in the first class cabin is created by taking legroom away from the coach seats. These are identical to the claims Elliott makes.

Personally, I remember flying Southern and liking them just fine. But I don't remember the coach product being superior to other airlines, and don't remember the seat pitch being greater just because there wasn't a first class.

How do morons like this get work? I imagine any regular FT poster could do a better job.

(c) Some people are d*cks, and some of these people get especially d*ckish online. I definitely see it on these boards - view any complaint here and people frequently talk a lot bigger game than they would in real life. That's true on almost any type of online forum.[/QUOTE]

Totally agree pinnped...lots of FT posters are retrospective studs but were instantaneous cowards. (threads pending if anyone chalenges this)

Absolutely. The great majority of the time here on FT all I read is a bunch of whiny travel elitists that complain about the most unimportant things.

It's an airplane that gets you from point A to point B, nothing more.
You want your tush kissed when you fly, book a private jet.

If it was *only* about getting from point A to point B then there would be no difference in price between first and coach.

I think Elliott's column is rather infantile. It's easy to claim of FTers "they are jerks", but with over 450,000 FT members he's going to be right about some FTers, no matter what he claims ("they drive Hondas", "they support the Yankees" and so on).

I was planning to rebut his arguments, but really, there is nothing sensible enough that he has written to enable a rebuttal.

In a community of 450,000 people there are going to be jerks, and there are going to be angels, and all and sundry in between. Elliott's article is so shallow an ant could not drown in it.

Hey now...he merely said we were jerks. He didn't go this far...

$30K is perhaps 3 hours on a long haul heavy jet

F (suites) - SQ A380 has double beds and EK A380 has showers