Originally Posted by
sosafan
I believe this statement is too strong, and would like to disagree with its implication. It is of course true that miles do not accrue interest. But their underlying value is the cost of a flight (or benefit) and that increases in value with inflation. I suspect that in the near future, airline prices will increase faster than inflation. (My prediction could be wrong, but you have to admit that it is a possibility.) In such a world, the value of the miles has increased with the price of the ticket that you don't have to buy.
A counter argument is that redemption levels go up. A counter-counter argument is that the cost of a saver-type domestic award on many airlines is the same as it has always been.
Do you really believe that the costs of flights have increased concurrent with the inflation rate over the last 10 years? I think if you actually look at the data you'll be sorely disappointed.
Could that happen in the future? Absolutely. But I'm not betting on it in the immediate future.
And if you look at things like premium cabin long-haul flights where most FFers don't pay for them out of their own pocket anyways, the actual dollar value of the ticket is somewhat irrelevant. At $4,000 or $8,000 I'm not buying the Biz seat NYC-NRT. But I'd happily redeem my miles for it.