I’ve given the recent announcement by US Airways regarding elimination of the 500 mile minimum some additional thought, and I’ve reached a few conclusions:

1) There are a handful reasons that I no longer fly US Airways, and this is NOT one of them
2) US Airways is not the only airline on earth to only award actual miles flown
3) US Airways MAY not be the only U.S. airline to implement this policy

I think the jury is still out on whether or not this sticks. As I said, there are other airlines that only award actual miles flown. But that doesn’t mean that this policy change will be successful. US Airways still has to compete with the domestic airlines, and this change may be one that the other carriers don’t feel is worth the hassle. While I’m sure that the carriers would love to do something about getting the large and ever-growing pool of unused miles under control, I can’t help but think that the number of miles generated by the 500 mile minimum pales in comparison to the miles generated through “alternate” means such as credit cards.
So…this will be interesting to watch, and you can bet that I’ll be watching.