With US Air's announcement that they're no longer giving out bonus miles to elites, I have to wonder: why not just bite the bullet and take this huge liability off their hands? Stop giving out miles altogether.

Why don't they do this?

Some will say that, in some instances, the mileage programs make money while the other parts of the airline don't, like United. While this might be true miles are still a huge liability of the airline, no?

Some will say that they need miles to keep loyalty. I call BS on that one. Most flyers fly on 1) price and 2) convenience. Very few folks in the scheme of things fly based on miles.

So let's just get on with it. All airlines should get rid of their miles liabilities and stop this gradual bleeding.