I apologize for not answering any comments. Got bumped coming back from Dallas only to come home and deal with some issues (water heater, cat, etc) plus catching up with so much.

Tomorrow’s post is scheduled.

I prefer to keep my head in the sand while I churn away. Make sure you’re prepared to hear the answer before you ask the question.

I’ve looked through financial statements for several different banks and have yet to find a smoking gun laying out miles valuation. Not saying there isn’t one, but if there is I haven’t found it.

from Wikipedia OK best I can do in a few minutes, come on, it may be proprietary but there has got to be someone on either side of the transaction who may have let slip some clues ? ? ? Or am I wrong ?

“The airlines themselves value points in their financial statements at less than one one-thousandth of a cent per points.[citation needed]. That loyalty points undoubtedly have an estimable monetary value is also reflected in the fact that some programs allow for the donation of frequent-flyer points to certain charities.[22]”

I reckon the cards which allow one cent per point to be taken off air fares and such are worth a cent (?)

Nick may have mentioned the key, somewhere buried in the financial records of publicly held corporations may be the best clues.

I’ve often wondered about it. Who if anyone gets “hurt” by some of these maneuvers ? Does Walmart by use of BB ? Does AE by use of BB ? Does Chase or Staples by use of Ink of those two in conjunction with each other ? Or does it actually bring them more business ? Do the people who fall through the cracks more than make up for the people who don’t ? (There’s an article about that, right ?) Not to mention all the FF miles that go completely unused. I supposed the used/ununused ratio has gone up just as the # of awards travelers.

The cost of the FF miles is just the cost of aquiring customers for the CC companies and one would think it makes economic sense for them. I just don’t see exactly the juxtaposition between them and the airlines. There has got to be collusion going on, because if the miles get devalued too far, then many fewer people will want the credit cards, right ? So the CC companies would pay less for the miles. Lots of secrets here, it would be great to find out what’s really going on.

For that matter, the way airline sales come up. It would be great to have an inside source to have some hints as to when these are going to happen.

People over on FT are trying to read the tea leaves with airline sales and with FF programs, workarounds, etc. for that matter.

Can you please have one of your interns look in to this issue 😉

1. To issuers-Don’t know. However they really increase the YTB (Yield to Blogger).

2. I imagine the referrals are vital to the sub-group within the bank setup to market them.

3. Shut yo’ mouth.

4. Let’s hope not.

Happy New Year.

Every now and then a bank will disclose that they spent $X million purchasing frequent flyer miles, but I’ve never seen a disclosure on the # of miles or cost per mile.

George, you are in the business world, is there some source of industry standards where we could learn the true numbers on this ?

No, padawan, that’s proprietary and thus highly confidential information.

I agree with the recent mention that 2016 will probably be the start of the 1 mile = 1 cent of airfare trend.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go start a Kickstarter for suckers to add their miles to my account so I can fly the apartment suites and write all about it….