Originally Posted by
PWMTrav
My guess is that credit card affiliate commissions are still, and by far, the top income source for OMAAT. I've kind of assumed the reason they've shifted a bit toward luxury travel is because now they have money, and this is how they like to fly and where they like to stay, and can afford it. I'd guess the hotel booking business followed that, not led it.
The bigger problem to me now is that it's very hard to book anything premium on points these days, particularly flights. Nobody, OMAAT or anyone else, is really writing about that much, because it'd discourage credit card signups. But at this point I'm sitting on a ton of points and am mostly flying on paid fares or staying home.
to be fair, Live and Lets Fly has discussed the gutting of his preferred plan (United) and Ben and Gary frequently discuss the massive devaluations from multiple carrier (and Marriott).
what isn’t talked about is how difficult the exact premium cabin flight you want is to get on points with out huge surcharges. I was able to get business to Frankfurt out of sea for 50k Alaska miles and 50 bucks this summer but have to leave out of a near by city. My return will be 35k virgin points (plus $850) and then a domestic flight to the west coast, couldn’t find a Europe to west coast flight in business anywhere near my needed return date