Originally Posted by
Fly2Where
It's just hard, at least for me, to understand why airlines selling miles for ~0.25 per mile (plus bonus) if they have to pay 0.6 per mile.
When an airline sells a "mile", that is just an accounting unit for the loyalty program. When a loyalty program (either that own airline's program or a partner's) pays for a seat, the "cents per mile" refers to the actual distance of the flight. They are two separate concepts.