Originally Posted by
mnscout
I agree with you in part where you state that no one is entitled to the extra bonus that was not the part of a deal to begin with.
The rest if your argument is absolutely ridiculous.
To a credit card issuer anyone who does not carry a balance is a freeloader. I don't make it up, that's the term they semi-officially use describing people like the most of us.
To follow your logic, getting the bonus, then putting your credit card in the sock is immoral, and you shouldn't be doing it. Even using your card and paying your balance in full every month is not ethical either, because as you put it so dramatically it's "generally the poor person on the front line, who could be you, could be me, and who could've been my mother and father, who bears the brunt of that mistake, many times losing their jobs, or having to make good the money discrepancy out of their own pockets, or at the very least, being given some sort of reprimand that goes into their personnel record, I think unfairly, for their actions."
Miles game is what it is - a game. You don't want to play it, then be consistent and earn your miles exclusively by actually flying, and staying in the hotel. Otherwise, every time you sign up for the card with a sole purpose to get a sign-up bonus you smack your own principles in the face.
I am uncertain how you equate a customer's running an unpaid balance on a credit card with a CSR's mistake in offering a bonus to a customer that was not intended. A card user makes the decision to make no more than a minimum payment; a CSR isn't involved in that. And, ultimately, although a credit card company surely prefers the customer who runs a balance and makes minimum payments, the company prefers the customer who uses the card (so that the merchant has to pay the card company a fee--one of the CC's lines of profit) and pays his balance every month over the customer who uses the card and then eventually defaults on the balance. That's one of the reasons credit card issuers tend to approve more cards for those with good credit scores over those with bad credit scores.
How that business reality clashes with my personal desire to avoid taking advantage of an innocent mistake made by a frontline person, I can't determine. And, in fact, I do tend to use cards for more than just meeting spending requirements. Why? Because at some point, I might want to apply for other cards with the same issuer in the future, and I've made my own strategic decision that showing that I have used a card for more than a miles bonus demonstrates that I might be a worthwhile customer for other cards. As we've seen with Citi and Chase and other issuers, churning has become a red flag for these companies, and a potential basis for the denial of bonuses.
It is a game. And, if someone thinks that the only part of the game to play is accumulating miles, then he'll miss out on the bigger game, which is keeping his finances in good order so that he'll have plenty of discretionary income to spend on the aspects of travel not covered by airline miles and hotel points bonuses.