I've collected Airmiles since the early '90s and have watched the benefits dwindle dramatically. There used to be a glossy catalogue and many rewards choices, and the no. of miles needed for travel was very reasonable. I've bought tickets for others as well as for myself for NYC. Now, there few rewards to choose from, miles required for flights have increased ridiculously, and as mentioned by another poster, the taxes/surcharge are so high it's ridiculous. The one reward I plunked my miles into lately was BOM investment certificates (it was great - growing a savings account with just my Airmiles). Now that's been discontinued.
My greatest complaint is customer service, more specifically, the lack of it. I called today about a discrepancy, waited on hold for a while, and then chose the call-back option (60 - 120 mins. wait)
More than 3 1/2 later, my call-back came. They weren't done tormenting me - I then sat on hold listening to Muzak for another 25 minutes. This is ridiculous, thinks I, so while still holding, I decided to try their Live Chat. That would be faster, right? Nope. There were, my screen told me, 6 persons ahead of me, and it was almost closing time back East.
Making a customer wait for over 4 hours, removing the majority of rewards they used to offer, raising no. of miles for flights ridiculously, overcharging for flight charges, and now deleting miles after 5 years all point to a sad trend today: disrespect and greed.