Originally Posted by
finny52
For DL the risk of going to FBATR is that the credit card program will really be no more valuable than any of the multitude of credit cards out there. The reason that DL CC is so valuable is that there is an arbitrage opportunity using points for O fares.
Once they do this there's no reason to stay loyal at all...
I suspect that most FFers redeem for domestic coach award tickets, although some aim for an international trip of a lifetime while high tier elites are more likely to do both paid and award international travel.
OTOH, the folks who do MRs and MS probably are hoping to snare an major international redemption in at least business class (if they can't do IFC on another alliance). They're probably not HVCs or loyal in the traditional sense, so DL doesn't gain much from giving out such award tickets that nevertheless have been earned. It's helpful to DL that it's credit card partner AmEx has had some rules that discourage or prevent churning.