Another News Article About Our Hobby - "The Short Path to First Class"

Another day, another article in a major newspaper about how to obtain the top tier of airline status for cheaper than you think. The article, "The Short Path to First Class" in today's Wall Street Journal covers two flyers who have 1K on United and details how they will take a few trips to Asia or the South Pacific for 8,000-10,000 to maintain their elite status.

I've always wondered how people feel about these articles. They accomplish the idea that many blogs have...which is to show people that it's a lot easier to travel well for much cheaper than you think. But articles like this also expose the hobby to the masses who might decide to join in and shrink the deal windows for everyone else. Now, I've only been at this for a year to a year and a half, so I KNOW I don't have much ground to stand on...but for the long-timers who have been doing this forever...how do you feel about articles like this?

The one kinda cool thing about this article is the awesome chart they have that the bottom of the article that they compare the top elite status levels on UA, DL, AA and US.