What is ironic is that on every AA flight, they tell you that if you sign up for a credit card you get a (for example) 50k mileage bonus “enough for two round trip flights in the US” as a selling point. Not any more!

If you remember many years ago when miles were earned on distance and then the credit cards appeared awarding 1 mile to the dollar, at that point, due to inflation, they had no choice but to eventually get to a revenue based system. They have done it gradually, shifting the earn to revenue and now the burn.

I prefer the way hotels like SPG handled it by having a chart and just bumping categories when necessary - at least it gave you something to target with your point earnings. Now, with dynamic pricing, they don’t have to wait for an annual chart rollout, they can bump prices daily and make points as worthless as they want.

Part of the allure in the points game is finding a sweet spot. If they go all revenue and don’t give good value opportunities for using points, they will be hurting the mile selling industry they created as people won’t be as likely to use the credit cards.