Originally Posted by J.Edward

Ah-ha! I asked Victor almost the exact same question on Saturday during the last DO!

Look, OnePass is a revenue center - not an expense center for CO. This is due to the large contracts CO (and all the others) have with "partners" for the sale of mileage. Case and point: AMEX paid DL $500,000,000.00 (that's half a billion!) for SkyMiles to give to their card holders; when UA went into BK one of the only divisions of the company turning a profit was Mileage Plus; or look at AreoPlan which is it's own company now! If mileage rewards are done properly than the airlines can reap rewards from them.

However, should the opposite occur (the airlines merrily keep minting miles and don't offer an increase in freebies to go along with them) folks are going start realizing the currency has been devalued. Reward rates will increase, especially for “rule-bustin” F seats and mileage holders will become increasingly frustrated. As such, the demand for "partner" mileage buying will decline and CO will no longer be able to harvest the revenue they once enjoyed from selling those valuable OnePass miles.

They will kill the goose laying the golden eggs.

But alas, what know I?