Just like countries and banks that have no effective restraint or external supervision, the amount of devaluation of points that airlines have been tempted to d

Just like countries and banks that have no effective restraint or external supervision, the amount of devaluation of points that airlines have been tempted to do in recent years (and have done) is incredible. The only thing keeping most points-accumulating customers from being angered about this (while there is a hardcore group of fans who track it) is that no airline is required to publish the history of inflation/devaluation. And the airlines hide it behind having changed from actual static charts showing what an airline mile is worth, to now floating dynamic pricing, which completely obscures what has happened. Sell tons of miles dirt cheap to credit card companies, and devalue the miles when it comes time to redeem them. Of course, that is their right, and this is not a state currency, and these are "bonuses", not some entitlement. But people should justly have lowered their faith in it from the beginning. Although you might say the same thing about lotteries -- people are participating in those voluntarily, yet those are regulated and have restrictions on what they can and can't do. But anyway, now people just discover that the 200,000 miles they'd been working towards for years no longer even buys the ticket(s) they thought it would. It has made me, personally, seriously lower my loyalty or pursuit of loyalty for any future promised benefits. (and an end note/minor side story, this applies not just to points/miles but also elite status -- the perks you get for loyalty, such as better seats during flights, lounges, check-in, etc. Airlines have devalued these just as well, by letting the ranks of "elite" customers swell through credit card spending qualification, promotions, etc, and then devaluing the benefits at the tiers of qualification. They're glad to shovel people in with promises which then turn out to be not worth the benefits you thought. Or they add a secret higher tier that you didn't know about.)