Airlines make it harder to earn free flights for loyalty

Airline loyalty programs are losing much of their allure even for frequent flyers, and the rules for navigating the system have changed. Flying is no longer the best way to earn miles or points. The biggest bang for your buck comes from signing up for the right credit card. Frequent-flyer programs get relatively little attention from Wall Street, and their financial importance to the airlines is not widely understood by travellers, who just hope to earn a free flight now and then. Airline profits are subject to vagaries like the price of fuel, the actions of competitors on key routes, even the weather. Amid all that uncertainty, the airlines have found a reliable source of revenue in selling miles to banks, which then use the miles to persuade consumers to sign up for the cards and use them as much as possible. <br/>