>the deals they allow through credit cards are more like loss leaders
Au contraire, it's more and more common for airlines' sales of milage/point blocks to CC-issuing banks to be the most important bottom-line contributor, with the value for milage program deals exceeding the rest of the airline's operations and assets altogether: [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/airlines-b... [2]https://airlinegeeks.com/2021/12/17/here-s-why-airline-loyal... [3]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-31/airlines-...