Originally Posted by
WilcoRoger
You make the same mistake as the NYT - equate FFPs with credit card earnings. There are people out there who earn those miles by actually flying
and if those flights are paid by someone else, their cost price is zero. Same with hotel points - earning them while actually staying in hotels on someone else's dime. So my proposition of zero cost vs any cash benefit is valid. Of course being human we try to milk as much benefit as possible but if the supply is close to unlimited, it tends not to matter.
My example - earning 50k+ miles monthly by flying makes the redemption "value" irrelevant. Should I spend 100€ on a short hop or 20k points? Real no brainer.
When it comes to credit cards, your (and the NYT's) analysis does have merits, of course - the main argument being that cashback can be used for anything, not just hotels (or flights)
The problem is that *most* programs have vastly diminished the value received from flying and basically morphed into credit card signup marketing schemes. It's almost become a joke how the planes themselves are merely a vehicle to get people together in one place to hear the credit card sales pitches.
I still fly a little AS and credit my BA and EK there as well. But they've become an anomaly (at least among US carriers) in terms of still having their primary earning path be flying, with a comparably mild credit card offering. And I wonder if they're going to kill off their current model when they fully integrate into OW.
I guess you do reach a point where you have a mileage balance that is so far beyond what you'd actually consume on "ideal" awards that you just start using the points/miles for everything. Sometimes I feel that way with Hilton, where I have a couple million and absolutely *know* that program devalues every 2 years like clockwork. Random Hampton Inn for 30,000 points? Ah hell, might as well...gonna by 50k next year.