Credit card bonuses didn't cause the rampant inflation in mileage awards. The strong economic demand for regular paid tickets, reduced competition of sorts, and/or greedy airline corporations are the mix in what drove the rampant inflation of mileage awards. And it's the same kind of dynamic in the hotel awards sector.

Extreme devaluations in mileage awards have happened even for mileage programs where credit card bonuses have been miserly or nowhere near as widely popular as they have been with US airline programs.