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Cut Up Your Card
Power Trip · January 24, 2003

Take your frequent-flier membership card out of your wallet. Now grab a pair of sharp scissors.

Cut it in half.

Does that feel good? It should. You've been a prisoner of points for so long, you probably don't remember what it's like to book an airline ticket, reserve a room or call for a car without thinking about the miles you could amass.

If you didn't have the courage to turn your frequent-flier card into confetti, I can understand. It's a dramatic change in your way of thinking.

But here are seven reasons why you should stop collecting miles right now:

They're a waste of time. Miles can be highly addictive, compelling you to add an extra leg to your trip or just jet somewhere for no reason other than to add points to your account. That's what happened to Carsten Thomsen, who flew from Austin, Texas, to Orlando, Fla., then did an about-face and returned to Austin on the same day — just to earn the 1,500 miles needed to reach Delta Air Lines' Gold Medallion status. "I took some magazines and good books along and spent a relaxing day picking the extra miles," he says.

They're hard to turn into a ticket. Why else would there be about eight trillion — yes, that's trillion with a "t" — unredeemed frequent-flier miles out there? Maybe it's the blackout dates and restrictions that the airlines have on mileage rewards. Kathie Horbacz Spitzer is a perfect case-in-point. She has about 250,000 miles in her Continental Airlines account that she can't use. "They never seem to have seats available when I need to travel, even though I have called several months prior to needing the tickets," complains the Clearwater, Fla., meeting planner.

They're practically worthless. Industry experts generally value each frequent-flier mile at 1.5 to 2 cents. But the airlines themselves aren't so generous. If you check a carrier's earnings reports and run a few calculations, then you'll discover that a mile may actually be worth only a fraction of that — about 0.000572 cents, to be exact. At least that's the assessment of frequent-flier expert Randy Petersen, who publishes InsideFlyer magazine. "When it comes to valuation purposes, a mile isn't worth as much as you would think," he says.

They could be a tax liability. A 7.5% excise tax on the sale of miles has been in effect since 1997, ironically since the implementation of the Taxpayer Relief Act. But after many complaints, the Internal Revenue Service in 2002 ruled that frequent-flier miles earned from business travel won't be taxed as income. The reason for the government's reversal: Rewards programs were so complex that even a federal agency renowned for its bureaucracy couldn't understand them. Is this good news? No, because if officials ever change their mind, it could leave you with a big tax problem.

They make you spend money you shouldn't. Miles are dangerously habit-forming. I've said it already, but it merits repeating. Not only will you waste time (see point No. 1), but you also will burn through your bank account. Consider Robert Backie's quest for elite status on America West Airlines. When he travels to London, he books a layover in Houston or Newark, N.J., instead of taking a nonstop flight. That way, he can collect the bonus miles the airline offers for flying from those cities. He also puts "everything" on his American Express mileage affinity card. "We will not spend big money at any place that does not take American Express, as we see each dollar lost as a mile lost," says the Phoenix sales manager, who freely admits to being "addicted" to miles.

They seduce you into making stupid decisions. Let's stay with the money issue for a minute. When you're hooked on points, you begin to make purchasing decisions based on how many miles you'll accumulate — not how much it's costing you. That's a terrible idea. Think about it: You're buying a travel product without paying much attention to the price, which is exactly what the airlines want. Mileage programs are meant to create blind loyalty in consumers. They're designed to turn off the part of your brain that says, "Hey, that's not a good deal!" Put differently, collecting miles clouds our judgment and turns us into mindless robots that buy on command.

They offer nonexistent perks. This was the final nail in the proverbial coffin of mileage-collecting for me. It may be fine to promise a free ticket with a few strings attached. But the biggest lie is that being an elite member will get you preferred treatment. It doesn't always do that, as I discovered when I began seriously collecting frequent-flier miles a decade ago. I was enticed to join United Airlines' frequent-flier program, but after giving the carrier my exclusive business for two years, I still felt like an ordinary traveler. Upgrades were almost impossible to secure. So were lounge passes and other coveted perks. It took another year to kick the habit. David Kingsley, an attorney in Plantation, Fla., is so disillusioned with a system that taunted him with offers of unavailable first-class seats that he's stopped playing the game entirely. He's redeeming the miles he has left any way he can and says he's no longer interested in collecting points on his preferred airline, Continental. Good move, David.

So what's the alternative to collecting points? You could quit your program cold turkey and never claim a mile again, but that might not be practical. Don't you deserve some recognition for your travel?

Well, maybe. I believe there are sensible rewards programs that don't encourage irresponsible behavior or make offers that are too good to be true. One example is Southwest Airlines' Rapid Rewards program. It doesn't limit the number of seats available for awards and has only a few blackout dates. Want a free ticket? It takes just eight trips and you're there. Rapid Rewards members also get meaningful perks for their loyalty, like free companion flying privileges and books of drink coupons. Think of Rapid Rewards as nicotine gum for major-airline mileage addicts — the start of your recovery.

Are you ready now? Grab those scissors and cut away.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.