Originally Posted by Plato90s
Because AA writes off the value of those tickets as a marketing expense with which they can offset their operating income.
Originally Posted by brp
The higher they value the miles, the bigger the write-off for the giveaway, as already mentioned above.
Cheers.
Sorry - not true. They get to write off their incremental cost of the tickets - some extra fuel, the cost of the food they serve (if any) - I think that might be about it.
Think about it - the IRS isn't going to let you deduct $52,000 for something that costs you $5,200 - if they did, there'd be a lot more contests.