Capital One, a medium-sized credit card issuer, introduced a dollar-based plan, and I think that this sort of plan really does not correspond with the type of usage heavy travelers represent.

Their plan essentially counted points for purchases on an internal scale independent of a the published airline award charts. The Capital One awards would be redeemable for low-end awards at any airline on a similar scale to the standard airline 25,000 domestic coach awards, but the Capital One chart asked for (I think) 100,000 points for a domestic first ticket! No option for international J or F or for international upgrades. Those are the awards that people who are high-yield travelers tend to like to redeem, because they are the scarcest type of benefits even for elite-level travelers. And they have the highest cost-per-mile redemption value. (Anyone can get from Boston to Dallas for $300 in coach, but to get from Boston to Tokyo in business might cost $6000 -- yet the award chart difference is not a factor of 20)