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Comment by tough | Hacker News Reader

I guess it's a neat psychological trick like airline points

Well, every time you get a raise they're worth more at least.

How are airline points a trick? I've literally saved thousands without changing my spending habbits. Well actually one of my habbits is now reading about airline, hotel, and credit card points as a hobby, but it's still not spending more.

With very minimal effort you can literally have an effective 25% rebate on all flights.

It's there to give you an incentive to choose a given airline. It doesn't mean that you are being taken advantage of, per se, but it probably affects the choice of airline.

Yes this is what I mean, they're there to keep you captive, and thinking you're saving.

Let me put it this way, you might get a 25% cashback on a 1000 flight, but there might be a 500 flight alternative from another lowcost competing airline which you didn't even consider or knew it existed due to their points moat or whatever

more commonly: which you knew existed but didn't take because the $1000 flight was on your employer's dime while the points were something you benefited from personally -- essentially a kickback scheme.

While there can be some price discrepencies between legacy full-service carriers, usually it's not too big. Low cost carriers will definitely offer flights at a huge discount but the experience is so awful that I refuse to fly them.

Just curious? How are airline points a trick in your opinion?

It makes me think of the gift cards grift. [0]

You're basically giving your money away to the airline to keep, instead of having it in your bank account.

It's not real money, if the airline goes bankrupt tomorrow do you have your points?

[0] - https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/more-than-you-want-to...

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