In an ideal world where we all have 850+ FICO scores and impeccable ability to manage household finances involving consumer credit and obtain ample credit lines, yes.
In the real world, the one where a majority of those polled in the US report that a $1000 unexpected expense would put their household in serious financial trouble, people might have good reasons to balance the risk of an airline or other business going busto vs. other completely solid reasons that make credit cards problematic. And they’re not wrong.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-am...-1000-expense/
These people are going to take occasional trips on airplanes. Also, I recall that as part of the US->AA wind down, less than 10% or so of tickets purchased are purchased more than 90 days out. So... for a lot of people, the impact is pretty minimal, we’re talking about risk that your $200 ticket to visit Grandma in a couple months as a casual traveler might be impacted by a black swan event that takes an airline from “we’re paying dividends and doing fine” to “chapter 7 full liquidation”. Because that is what we’re talking about- airline tickets will be honored if the airline is allowed to continue operating debtor in possession aka Chapter 11, the case where they do NOT get honored is when the whole shebang gets liquidated Thomas Cook style, chapter 7.