pinniped

The U.S. airline cartel doesn't really need to chase us. What are we going to do? Drive? They've eliminated most of the competition, carefully tread lightly on each other's moneymaker routes, and kept a pretty tight lid on growth/supply as a group.

FFPs used to thrive in part because of information arbitrage. Fewer of us knew how to exploit the awards and status benefits. Now everybody and their brother collects and uses miles, it's no longer a niche thing. Airlines have mostly shifted to being credit card delivery vehicles as far as miles go - the flying itself is now a much smaller component of the mileage earning game.

Hotels have gone more towards the direct sale of status (again, as part of being credit card delivery vehicles). So the benefits are watered down over time. I suspect hotels can still identify and reward the true high-value guests at each individual property: I know this has happened to me when I became a "regular" at a hotel, regardless of what status I had with the overall program.