Swerve,

Ypu still don’t get it, do you? It is neither a scam, nor dishonest – if it were, regulators in one country or another would have put a stop to it long ago.

Whilst it is true that there are more frequent flyer miles in circulation than could ever be redeemed (and more than the airlines could ever cope with being redeemed were they freely convertable into “free” flights), individual’s miles are entirely redeemable if the individual does as I suggested above – understand how the process works (and the limitations), plan very early, and be flexible with travel dates and classes.

If there is anything wrong with “the system”, it is that some customers (by and large the casual customer who isn’t really a loyal, regular flyer with a specific airline or airline-alliance) have too many unrealistic expectations about getting something for nothing. Now I’m sure Swerve will again argue that this is the fault of the airlines – and maybe to an extent it is. But of course, there has to be a way for new customers to get into the programs, and the airlines won’t know whether they are really worth nurturing until the customer has joined and travelled a bit (or not!). Even if you agree with the idea that the airlines encourage too many customers to join frequent flyer programs, this is not airlines running a scam or being dishonest, but rather the entry requirements being set too low. If anything therefore the reduction or elimination of miles on cheap fares, not allowing customers to join unless they buy a reasonably highly yielding fare in the first place, and the ramping up of the miles needed for awards is a VERY GOOD thing – it reduces the opportunities for such casual and relatively infrequent customers, and therefore focuses the program on the real frequent flyers.

Andy