Originally Posted by
jsloan
Incidentally, the reason for this apparent discrepancy is that airline cards are extremely profitable for Chase. Many people run up excessive balances and pay recurring, and substantial, interest charges in the name of getting something for "free." Know yourself.
In the premium category, it's also about managing "brand loyalty" and getting people to top-of-wallet a card, spending with it when Chase is making a profit on interchange fees (ie. blindly and always).