Any price increase generates outrage on Flyertalk, but the effect is transient.
I think many are sitting on large balances of miles and points, and so it seems uninteresting to earn more. However, travel costs are still reduced due to the pandemic, and as demand increases the buying power of miles and points will increase, while the travel buying power of cash will be diminished.
100%. I’m sitting on early 2,000,000 transferable points between AMEX, Chase, and Citi. I’m sure I’m a lightweight compared to others. I’m much more interested in maxing out cash back opportunities now. More transferable points don’t do anything for me and with all the huge offers out there now I can earn points faster than I can spend them. But I always end up reluctant redeeming my transferable points for cash because I know I could “do better”. The pandemic is far from over in much of the world — including the US — which means I’m unlikely to be going on trips where spending tons of points is going to happen.