This is a very generic observation I've had tonight, but is it just me or is point earning on a number of FF programs becoming detached not only from distance traveled (something that I am honestly surprised didn't happen long ago), but even from actually using the airline at all? The hard crash-off in earnings levels at a number of airlines, either associated with the shift to spend-based earning (Delta jumps to mind at the moment) or just in general (Emirates comes to mind) seem to place actually /using/ an airline as an increasingly inefficient way to earn points. I can't think of too many cases where the incentive is actually upside down in Economy (i.e. more efficient to use another source to earn an airline's points), though I can pick some out in Premium Economy, Business, and/or First (usually because those distance-linked miles don't get piled on nearly as fast as the ticket cost rises...for example, on VS a "lowest" JFK-LHR economy ticket will earn you 6916 miles for $1222 (5.6 miles per dollar) while a "lowest" upper class ticket on the same flight will get you 10374 miles for $6812 (1.5 miles per dollar). At the latter rate, you're better off getting points through someone like Hilton (where you can effectively get 3 points per dollar). The damage is lessened at upper tier levels, but not eradicated entirely. Probably most shocking about this is the fact that VS hasn't had a major devaluation that I heard about (granted, I'm new to this, but the United/Delta changes have gotten a lot of press and notice).

The observation is striking because this sort of behavior seems to be showing up more and more often due to the massive devaluations out there, and it seems at least somewhat perverse to the point of these programs (after all, the point is presumably to get people to use your product...not to use someone else's product, convert points, and then use yours for free). I do expect that some rounds of devaluations will "fix" this situation and the trend towards spend-based earnings will do this as well...but for the time being it seems that there are increasing cases where things are a bit upside down. Am I the only one who is observing this and thinks it a little on the odd side?

The other bit I have found odd is that in tandem with the massive devaluations, earning via credit card spend alone is in many cases more of a factor with a given airline than actually earning with the airline. Again, this seems just a bit odd to me for a whole host of reasons...but maybe it's just me?