Not quite, Chase makes the most money from people who carry balances, annual fees, and all the charges they get to tack on for late payments, funny names, having a pulse, etc.. Their profit on transactions is not where the big $$ is. In fact, one of the amusing facts that emerged from the close look at the industry over the past few years is that internally they refer to people who pay their bills in full every month as "deadbeats".

In a sense, somebody with lots of charges who doesn't carry a balance is the worst kind of customer for them. No interest income, no ancillary fees, and a very high ratio between the miles or other benefits they have to hand out and the annual fee revenue they receive from that account. The CC companies do get some transaction fees, but most of it goes to the merchant processor and the interchange (Visa, MC, etc.). I'll bet in the end they break even on the more generous cards like Visa Sapphire.