Originally Posted by
jsloan
Even if CSR merely earned at par with the UA card, the fact that it includes a 1:1 transfer to UA miles necessarily means that the value of the CSR is at least as great, and there would be zero reason to use the UA card.
The above statement is built intrinsically upon the fact that the poor relative value of UA miles (when compared to some other loyalty program currency/currencies) is what costs UA bank card business and that the relative value of UA miles matters.
Originally Posted by
PsiFighter37
I think y'all are missing findark's point, which is that the CSR earns more UR points (which are 1-for-1 transferrable to UA MP) - so the value of UA miles itself is a nonfactor, since you can earn more UA miles outright from CSR than on any UA MP card, at least when it comes to the travel category.
The allowed transfer between UR points and UA miles is uni-directional at a 1-1 ratio. Whether or not the transfer allowance were unidirectional and whether or not it were at a 1-1 ratio, customers’ still make decisions about which bank cards to use and how to use them and their points based on the relative value between the currencies that can be acquired directly or indirectly by bank card use.
The value of UA miles relative to UR points does matter in how consumers behave. It matters in relation to which and how bank cards and their earned points get acquired, used, retained.
It’s a UA pipe dream to believe that the relatively poor value of UA miles in the market of airline and bank card currencies isn’t the driver behind UA’s bank card situation and UA’s whining about its arrangement with Chase.
If UA increased the value of United miles for most United customers, Chase would be providing UA a lot more bank card-related revenue than Chase already does. But UA doesn’t seem intent upon increasing the value of United miles for most United customers. And UA’s bank card business is paying the price for the diminished value of UA miles — miles whose value has been deliberately devalued by the airline.