Originally Posted by
dieuwer2
If they would do that, I predict airline credit cards go the way of the dodo. Why? Because a straight 5% cash back card will be more valuable than 1 cent/mile cards.
I don't think the vast majority of people see this, make the comparison. Moreover, I think a big part of the shift to revenue-based airline loyalty programs is the affinity credit card. The program's units become much more fungible than blocks of miles. This was discussed a lot when Southwest followed JetBlue to the darkside. Moreover, the credit card is driving much of the evolution of all travel industry loyalty programs. Moreover, look at the discussions in FlyerTalk and the blogs about how to optimize credit card spend to "earn" free travel, now especially maturing into the "Manufactured Credit Card Spend" FlyerTalk board.*
All competitive, and zero sum, with real (flight, stay etc.) loyalty, and the programs that rewarded it, that we've grown to know and love. But the credit cards are like a drug to the travel companies because they are like a drug to us.
* Gone this morning when I looked to get the title right (?!)