> who's paying for the flights? It’s appealing to blame everyone but the consumer. You, the person wielding the credit card, are paying for the flight. You s

> who's paying for the flights? It’s appealing to blame everyone but the consumer. You, the person wielding the credit card, are paying for the flight. You swipe your card, and when you paid money for something, seemingly, you also get a little bit of a flight with it. This is kind of like going to a restaurant and swiping your card and enjoying the ketchup. You paid for the ketchup. In few restaurants can you go and eat the ketchup without buying something else. But they still sold you the ketchup. Why does this have to be a big conspiracy? It is definitely interesting that it’s this or that merchant bank swipe fee airline spin around turnaround thing. On the other hand who cares. It is all obscuring the fact that you are buying the flights. If the flights didn’t exist, 3% merchant fees would still be atrocious! It doesn’t fucking matter to me if people spend money to buy flights, whether by buying them directly through airlines or via some brain dead savings scheme. You and I will never benefit from high swipe fees. You and I will never be billionaires. Absolutely nothing in the world would be lost or become less meaningful if CC providers charged less for swiping in the US, like they do in the rest of the world.