Airlines Working to Outlaw Mileage Runs

[clarkm04]

Title says it all.  The airlines are working to outlaw mileage runs/travel hacking of booking low cost tickets to rack up tons of miles for the 'real trip'.

From the NYT Upshot:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/upshot/the-fadeout-of-the-mileage-run.html?rref=upshot&_r=0

[Argyle]

In my experience, the writer gets it somewhat wrong.  Most people weren't doing mileage runs for the point — it almost never pays to go to Amsterdam, even for $500, just to earn part of a free ticket to somewhere else. The mileage runs were for the miles to earn premier status, which gives you free baggage, lounge use, access to upgrades, etc. 

But basically the airlines are finding that frequent-flyer-mile programs are bleeding them money, and they'd like to close them down, but they don't dare.  So they're just making it harder and harder to earn free tickets.  They're also trying to get you to buy magazine subscriptions and other non-flight things with your miles.  (I suspect they get some of the magazine subscriptions free, because magazines are so desperate to keep up their circulation for advertisers.)  I am bombarded with pleas to buy magazines with my miles literally on a daily basis.

[MilwaukeeStubble]

Title says it all.  The airlines are working to outlaw mileage runs/travel hacking of booking low cost tickets to rack up tons of miles for the 'real trip'.

From the NYT Upshot:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/upshot/the-fadeout-of-the-mileage-run.html?rref=upshot&_r=0

Title does not say it all.  They're not doing anything to "outlaw" mileage runs, in any sense of the word.  Hell the article even says that elite tiers are still milage based, which is usually the point of milage runs.  Even for the people doing runs to get points for "the 'real trip'" they aren't outlawing anything.  Outlawing would be creating a rule that prevented people from using those flights for rewards (say, "coach passengers must spend 2 nights for oversea flights to earn miles", or anything targeting and punishing people who do trips exclusively for the miles). The article mentioned no such thing.

The changes to frequent flier programs may kill mileage running but that's not even the real target.  The idea is to align profitable customers with rewarded customers overall.  These changes are meant to up the rewards given to the guy who flies cross country twice a month on short notice at the expense of the family who buys the cheapest possible tickets for their one flight a year.  It has almost nothing to do with milage runners.