You're not forced. This allows them to make extra money from people who don't bother, and offer discounts to price conscious people.
Time is money. Convenience too.
If points systems caused losses then nobody would have them. They’re money makers, and that money is coming from someone’s pocket.
It sounds like you believe the losses are coming from the people who _have_ the points? That doesn't seem likely to me.
It would be a better analysis to say "it's complicated" -
* Business travelers earn personally-owned points on their company spending. In this case, the company might be paying higher prices but the individual is being incentivized to continue that because the miles are essentially a kickback.
* Personal travelers have an incentive to travel with the same airline for more points, so a kind of lock-in for either (1) those who are not as sensitive to price differences or: (2) those for whom the benefits of the points are high enough to outweigh some higher costs acquiring them.
* In the same vein, a points system that encourages a traveler to stay with the same airline can give _that airline_ greater profits from _that consumer_, even if on a per-flight basis the airline might hypothetically be making less. It's like Costco selling stuff for a cheaper unit price.
Instead I’d rather focus on human nature and induced behaviour.
When mcdonald's offers 2 burgers for the price of one, they make money because people who wouldn’t normally eat at mcdonald’s show up.
When airlines offer points, they make money because people who normally wouldn’t book flights end up booking them. Even if the points are a good deal, you end up spending more money than you normally would because you’re enticed by the points.
Yes and tax authorities should fix that loophole.
> to get the full value of my money.
No one is forced to understand the system, but that means leaving some indeterminate amount of money/value in the hands of the predatory airline.
If you wanna save money, you figure it out. If you don't wanna figure it out, you leave money on the table.
They're selling (negative) convenience, but that's pretty much by design.
You already have to spend time researching airlines, buying tickets in advance, etc. but now in addition to that there is a completely contrived layer of bullshit I need to know about.
You can extend this concept even further and imagine literal series of hoops that you must jump through to earn “cash back” on your ticket at the end of the flight.
