Actually grady I have "bashed" airline pilots on the same subject.

I have the same respect for all pilot groups...wasn't bashing any one of them. I already went thru the airline pilot forums pointing out the same ridiculous absurdity of "...with you".

To make you happy I removed any reference to the aircraft type I fly.

Another thing -- ATC points out on-coming traffic at the flight levels simply so you won't be alarmed thinking he's at the same altitude. A simple "thank you" or "in sight" in the inital reply is fine but there is no need to later clog up the frequency to tell him you finally have the traffic in sight -- he doesn't care one iota. I have seen a lot of blocked calls because guys think they need to later tell center they have traffic in sight.