from the article: "For some, racking up enough frequent flier miles to earn top-tier status with their airline is worth taking a multiple-stopover flight from Alaska to Costa Rica, or booking a no-frills overnighter in Honolulu, without taking a real trip."

Yet another "non-story" about the airline industry from an Alaska news outlet.  Instead of focusing on what is really going on with leg room, travel times, pricing, profits, the cost of fuel, sub-contracted maintenance - to name a few - we get a story about folks who are gullible enough to play the millage game that allows customers to get "double miles" or climb into the aluminum tube before others.  Rather than covering the ways that the FAA cooperates and makes rules that favor the airlines over us consumers we get this.