"Loyalty" program management is responsible for devaluations as there is nothing which prohibited the program owners/managers from acquiring, holding and investing in hard currency reserves/assets by using the cash they got from customers using the "loyalty" program and being credited "miles"/"points" and doing so in order to fund the programs' sustainability with the return from those holdings/investments. In other words, the "loyalty" program could have been handled by the program operators/owners more like a well-managed insurance company and/or pension/retirement fund, and thus devaluations wouldn't necessarily be a reality for those miles/points already issued.

Some may think the "loyalty" programs are a sort of Ponzi scheme if not for the unilateral devaluations, but they don't need to be any more that than they need a devaluation -- at least if the owners/operators of these programs behaved differently.

Hopefully, the government regulators will get around to these kind of programs and at least greatly increase the disclosure requirements applicable in such situations. I'd welcome something akin to a prospectus and periodical reports of a sort that give way more details to the public about the operation and finances of these programs.