Wall Street Journal
“You have travel returning, pent-up demand and an oversupply of miles,” said Jay Sorensen, president of airline consulting firm IdeaWorksCompany. “We are set for a devaluation.” Frequent-flier programs’ job is to make fliers spend more than they otherwise would. A 2011 paper found they account for a 5% to 6% price premium. Airlines typically list dollar and points prices for flights. Based on the exchange rate, IdeaWorksCompany calculates that each of Delta’s SkyMiles is worth roughly 1 cent, meaning rational customers should never pay more than that for a mile.