Readers of The Gate With Brian Cohen and BoardingArea in general tend to know most of the ways to maximize miles and points — but when discussing miles and points with people who are not familiar with how they work, the possibility that frequent travel membership programs are profitable because of this one question is arguably correct.
Frequent Travel Programs Are Profitable Because Of This One Question.
That question is:
Who has time for this?
Offers from the frequent travel membership programs of airlines, lodging companies, rental car companies, and cruise lines are quite enticing: all the recipient of these offers has to do is sign up for the membership program and the offer; and they get miles or points — but usually not enough to redeem them for anything.
Credit card offers are somewhat different: they usually offer enough miles or points to redeem them for something — perhaps a free night or two at a hotel property — but using that credit card to spend a minimum number of dollars over a specific period of time is typically required; and taking advantage of other benefits is typically not all that easy or interesting for many people.
Many people are too busy with everyday life to fiddle with maximizing miles and points for their benefits — even with step-by-step instructions on how to do so — and the miles and points eventually expire…
…and many of those people will never earn enough miles or points to redeem them for something meaningful before they expire or are devalued. Having an award increase significantly before the member is ready to redeem them after saving them up for a long period of time is especially frustrating.
What ultimately happens is that these members have spent money on airfares, room rates, the use of rental vehicles, and voyages aboard cruise ships — which is exactly what the companies want in order to earn revenue and profits — and numerous miles and points wind up never being used. Although this is not exactly “completely free money” for these companies, they are not required to give more to their customers than necessary if the expiration or devaluation of miles and points occur.
Three years ago in 2022, only approximately eight percent of membership miles and points were redeemed; and approximately 30 trillion — yes, trillion with a t — frequent flier miles were not redeemed in 2018 as they sat dormant in membership accounts. If a frequent flier mile is valued at two cents per mile, that is the equivalent of $600 billion worth of miles that were not redeemed…
…and remember: a significant portion of earning miles and points these days is by spending with a credit card and not completely dependent on earning them, as was largely the case back in the 1980s and 1990s.
No wonder frequent travel programs are profitable to airlines, lodging companies, rental car companies, and cruise lines.
Final Boarding Call
The “refreshing” of existing credit cards — such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card — results in the claims of offering more benefits of greater value, which is technically the case that has caveats attached to them…
…but those benefits are increasingly dependent on their perishability in a shorter period of time — meaning that if you do not take advantage of them and use them, you lose them forever. Keeping track of what benefits and offers are valid when and where takes more time and effort than ever, as many of them are essentially little more than electronic coupons.
The trick is to ensure you get at least as much value out of frequent travel programs as possible — be sure to include opportunity cost as well as financial cost in that equation…
…but ultimately — if you play your miles, points, and credit cards right — you will receive more of a return on your investment than just breaking even.
If you do not have the time, energy, or inclination to remain up to date with the benefits and offers that you have earned or obtained, then perhaps you should reconsider your participation in frequent travel programs and credit cards that specifically cater to frequent travelers, as you could potentially wind up paying for them instead of benefitting from them…
Graphic illustration ©2012 Brian Cohen. All photographs ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
