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anon7000 2 hours ago

I mean a lot of airline point credit cards do something like that. Many have a fee, and you earn miles by using the card & get mileage bonuses for certain things. But these programs only make sense to a consumer if A) you’re good at finding good value for your miles and B) you’re passively earning miles by doing things you’d normally do anyways. (With a bonus for airline loyalty perks, if you fly a lot.)

Thing is, buying miles is normally a really poor use of your money, because the redemption rate isn’t great, and airlines devalue miles all the time. For example, the lowest option at delta is to buy 2000 miles for $70. That’s 3.5 cents per mile, but you can only expect to get a value of 1.25 cents per mile when you redeem them. Which only comes out to $25 in value, loosing you $45 — and that’s assuming you wait to spend miles for a good deal. (Redemption rate is worse during more popular flights.)

Airline miles are just not worth much, which is why people chase like hundreds of thousands of miles at a time through credit card sign up bonuses.