Originally Posted by
irishguy28
Again, frequent flyer programmes are, or were, intended to reward loyalty to the airline. They weren't brought into existence to allow people to "profit" from them by charging others for services such as yours.
The 'problem' is that the earnings from selling miles to the US card issuers are too large for an airline or FFP to pass up, especially during a down business cycle. There have been times when the literally only profitable part of United ( Alitalia might take note) was the business division selling bulk miles to third parties for resale; it significantly helped keep the airline operations side of the business afloat. I suspect that as long as AF is a little bit financially wobbly, the relative ease at which the Americans can generate miles via credit card will continue.