I received an email today from U.S. Scare. It seems that the rising prices of fuel has caused them to cut back on certain things and now instead of getting 500 miles minimum per segment you will receive the actual miles flown. This is an effort to ‘provide valuable benefits to our frequent flyers’. Um, what benefits are they providing us with. It thought that the least they could do was give a minimum of 500 miles per segment flown. Now that is being rescinded as of March 1st. So any tickets purchased after March 1st will earn the actual miles flown.

This personal sucks for me because I fly to and from every Podunk little town in the country because the expense of a direct flight is to high. I enjoyed actually earning something from the airline in the form of frequent flyer miles. Now I will get nothing extra, no little perks like extra miles, because let’s face it there are no perks left on airlines.

Another change to ‘provide valuable benefits to our frequent flyers’ is the assessment of a quick ticketing fee. They state: ‘Members redeeming miles for award travel online within 14-days of departure will be assessed a quick ticketing fee of $50 per ticket.’

So not only do you have to fly a minimum of 25,000 miles on their buses with wings you also have to pay an additional fee to use those miles that you earned in the first place.

The explanation for the changes comes down to this sentence. ‘We’re making these changes to offset record fuel prices and rising airline related expenses while maintaining the benefits you’ve come to expect.’ Here is what I have come to expect from air travel.

• Cramped outdated planes
• Dirty crowded planes
• Less flights
• Late flights
• Canceled flights
• Surly crew
• Samsonite Apes tossing luggage
• Increased fees
• Decreased service
• No customer service
• No accountability

So, thanks U.S. Scare for making sure that you continue to ‘provide valuable benefits to our frequent flyers’. Really means a lot, like a kick in the nuts means a lot.