Originally Posted by
brunos
I doubt that this will be the trend. AIrlines make a lot of money from selling miles to credit cards. Ben Lipsey (CEO of Flying Blue) recently said that it was very profitable and that they keep working on it.
Sure CX prioritize awards for DM and even its on loyalty program members rather than that of partners. But it has to be a balanced act as the objective of airlines is to make money in a competitive environment. If CX is very stingy in award availability to non-DM lots of people will credit cc miles and flying miles to another airline program and tend to avoid flying with CX.
Looks to me, you are mixing up loyalty programs and award tickets. Maybe read some more OMAAT and you'll notice what I wrote.
Originally Posted by
brunos
BTW: Like Cambo, and other colleagues, the fare difference can be so high that I often prefer to save thousands of USD and fly another airline (non-OW) rather than paying a fortune to achieve a top status.
It becomes no longer a matter of "being able to afford" the elevated prices (not an issue for me), though simply to refuse to pay pricing that reflect "what is assumed the market/route can bear", when suitable alternatives are available. The latter is made easy when time is no longer a leading item in one's life
