Sorry, still feel that this is all "holier than thou" stuff. While we don't know all the details, it seems clear that SOMEONE is losing when I put $150K a month on a 5x TYP/Blue Cash at CVS. And even if we believe that there may be some profit left for the issuer if I use a miles card instead, it is probable that the profit margin is much reduced if there is much more volume than expected. (As it will be because of recyclable nature of MS).

So why is doing this to a big retailer all that different, who has also planned for some lossage, fake returns etc. Seems arbitrary to me.

Now if I proposed that the best way is to mug and then kill (to prevent reporting) people for their credit cards, yes, probably over the line. Returning to Cosco, not so much.