In my opinion, the Golden Age of frequent fliers ended about three years ago. Since then, the airlines seem to have done every thing in their power to degrade their FF programs for all but the very few top (<1%) fliers.
However, my view is totally contrary to that of the NYT regarding the value of miles. Currently, I think that with the dramatic increase in the average price of an airline ticket that miles have become even more valuable. This shift in ticket cost outweighs all the new fees and the coming increased number miles needed for a ticket.
As an example, I recently did a trip from Chicago to Charleston, SC over the Fourth of July. I looked at air fares starting about 7 weeks out and looked for 3 weeks. At no time, did the price drop below $860 pp. At that, I spent 50,000 United miles for two coach tickets, quite a savings. Typically, I only use miles for international upgrades, but in this case, it was definitely worth 'spending' the miles.
BTW, the airlines are just starting to change the miles needed for free tickets. My expectation is that there will be a new standard for free tickets within 8-12 months. For domestic travel, miles required for 'saver' coach will probably rise to 35,000 miles and 'saver' first will probably go to 70,000 miles. Double that for the non-saver tix. As to international, I would not be surprised to see 100,000/200,000 miles for free coach/business tickets to Europe.
On another note, I am using up all my US Air miles. Typically, I tend to hoard my miles for upgrades, but have used 350,000 US Air miles on free tickets so far this year. US is definitely leading the airlines' 'race to the bottom' and I don't expect them to survive in the long run. The recent United-Continental deal will probably be the final nail in their coffin. They will probably lose their very profitable code share partnership with United because of this. Along the same line, I would not be surprised to see them get tossed out of the Star Alliance because of this and other service issues.
