I think you have one erroneous assumption here: Not all flyers will have access to a frequent flyer program so long as the functional word is "frequent." I fly about once every other year. I don't qualify for any kind of FF benefits. I solve this by specifically requesting the rear-most exit row. This guarantees me the legroom I need, and if the airline allows reclining seats I'll get one. It's the only way to survive... because at 5'11" the regular economy seats can almost be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

GlaDOS? Is that you?

..... he says while posting AC.

Pre-conditions for the price-demand curve??? There are only two: Monopoly and Duopoly. Internet providers almost always fall under these conditions... that's why they are regulated. Pre-conditions of the price-demand curve for cell phone insurance is a straw-man argument.

You cite Comcast's underhanded deception of their customers as evidence? I fail to see any parallel between Comcast and your situation with your handset.

There are DOZENS of carriers, and in most cases, you don't NEED a carrier to get a replacement handset. My local online classified system has hundreds of devices available, and I could have one in my hot little hand in 30 minutes if I wanted. You have stacked so many fallacies on top of each other that it's difficult for you to see the plainness of the situation: It is not a huge financial burden to self-insure your device... just buy a second one and you can switch devices in a matter of minutes. If you don't want to do that, then buy one on the open market. This solution is probably cheaper than perpetually paying the insurance premium to your carrier. If you buy the insurance package from the phone provider, you are bound by those terms. I currently don't buy insurance on my phone, but I have in the past... and when I did, the provider gave me a pamphlet that stated all the terms of the insurance policy. If you bought an insurance policy for your phone without understanding the terms of coverage and remediation, who's fault is that? If their terms weren't sufficient (can't deliver a replacement fast enough) then go somewhere else.

I'm not going to waste my time looking for a citation, but I'm pretty sure you could find SOME company that would give you a premium insurance plan that would replace your phone as fast as you want, but I imagine the cost of such a policy would be greater than just buying two devices up front.

The best I can do is distill your argument down to this: You are unhappy with the terms of service on your phone replacement plan. You project your own ignorance of the terms of your insurance contract onto others by making this unfounded statement: "most users have no idea when walk out of the store with a new phone, whether the store would give them a loaner phone(sic)." You possibly STILL don't understand that the cellular carrier who sold you the insurance policy, did so as a proxy, and that the company who insures your phone is most likely a 3rd party (citation: every insurance policy I have purchased for a mobile phone was through a 3rd party insurer, even though the transaction took place at the cellular carrier's sales floor). You hold the cellular carrier responsible for your dissatisfaction with an insurance contract to which the cellular carrier is not a party.

Have I summed that up correctly?

My advice to you is this: Be a better consumer. Understand the terms of a contract you enter into before signing or paying, and live by those terms. Understand that mitigating risk does happen at the societal level, but it does so FOR the society, not the individual. I you want to mitigate your individual risk, take action yourself, don't rely on others to mitigate your personal risk. And finally, my most fervent advice to you is this: Improve your situational awareness. When guys in a rental yacht pull up next to your inflatable dinghy and start chatting you up in an attempt to commandeer your bikini clad women... do not be fooled. Keep calm and row on.

Now we're getting down to it... why didn't you just start by saying "I wish I could pay extra for a premium replacement plan that allowed me to choose in advance, a phone handset of my liking, but leave it at the nearest convenient cellular retailer for the inevitable eventuality that I put my phone in the drink, so I don't have to wait 24 hours for a replacement handset."

Instead you hit us with the traditional TL;DR.

One concept that I think you are missing still is this: the market HAS REACHED THE OPTIMAL SOLUTION! We currently (and nearly always) sit at the balance point of what people are willing to pay for a service, and what a provider wants to charge for said service. Economics 101: Price curve meets demand curve and falls in love... you know the story right?

Also, your ass still got kidnapped. Just because you had been talking to them for a while doesn't mean they are pillars of the community.

Who is the "we" that is going to mitigate the cost? How is "legislating that the store to do more than they do now" in any way an act of mitigation? Have you considered the cost of enforcement? That's just more of my tax money that you are wasting!

  You have not answered the most critical question that has been posed over and over again by myself and others: Who is going to bear the huge costs of forcing stores to carry loaner phones? How is this profitable for the owners of the cellular store? How do you offset the cost of stocking several "loaner" units when they become obsolete and can't be sold? The store is going to pass the cost on to the customers, which means that in part, I end up subsidizing your dumb ass for not being able to take care of your personal belongings.

The way you phrase things makes me think you are angling for some kind of consumer protection sympathy, but you don't realize that this is not protecting consumers... it's protecting consumers who made poor choices in the face of obvious risk. As has been stated above, if you want an instant replacement plan for your phone... buy two. Asking the entire market to help you bear the cost of insuring your device is a form of socialism.

First and foremost... a bunch of strangers on a yacht are yelling at you to get on board for no explicable reason and you just do it??? Your ass just got kidnapped!

Second: Your story is unclear... are you suggesting that there were three women in bikinis on your river raft? If you speak the way you write I find that claim dubious.

Third: Some guys in a rental yacht start yelling something about getting aboard their boat and your situational awareness tells you it's an emergency and you should get in the water???? IN A LOCK OF ALL PLACES??? Depending on the direction the lock was operating, you could have been pulled under and drown. Your fucking lucky to be alive! Remind me to never let you captain anything that floats ever!

Fourth: Suggesting that every cell phone store keep an equivalent unit on hand would have a cumulative cost in the millions, and 90% of those devices would be wasted... they would sit on the shelf until such time as the user (rarely) needs a replacement, or until the user decides to upgrade... at which point the store now has an obsolete phone on the shelf that can't be sold for profit, and is now required to buy a brand new phone to stick on the shelf to act as "back up" for the new phone just purchased. Your logic is incomprehensible. It is apparent that you have no business sense whatsoever and that you make a living only because you are surrounded by exceedingly tolerant and generous people.

Dry bag baby... learn it, use it!

THIS!!!! Click bait is exactly why they keep posting his crap!

I've been thinking for a while that I'd love to write a Bennet Hasselton parody where I argue in 1200 words why he is such an asset to /. but I can never debase myself to write 1200 words without arriving at a meaningful conclusion.

People still print???? C'mon people, get over it!

The trouble is this: We DID let Crimea go... we did nothing. Then Russia provided SAMs and the rebels shot down a civilian airliner...and we did nothing. How long do we sit this one out?

Europe cannot risk the kind of continued unchecked aggression that Russia can dish out, not if they ever hope to avoid the financial ruin that follows Communism around like a hungry dingo. This is not a movie. Stand up to Russia.

Agreed... I've read MUCH better accounts of "Scamming the scammer"... one included a call to netstat to determine the remote guy's IP address, and ended in the scammer nearly crying. If the OP wasn't AC, I'd use my mod points to randomly hunt and downmod any comments I could find from the OP.

LAME!

Bow down to my 27" tablet!!!

I'm surprised they didn't name the publication "Security weak"... but perhaps they're not the laughing type?