Beyond the cash, carriers reap something else from the cards: These deals remain lucrative in both good times and bad, as they are immune to economic cycles. That’s because of the addictive nature of miles, a dubious commodity that tens of millions of Americans, particularly those who fly for their jobs, will probably never quit.
“In a recession, that [bank] business will go down, but it should provide a very high cushion to the airline,” DeNardi said in an interview. “That’s the real benefit here: It speaks to downside protection for the industry better than anything else.”
So they earn money by selling miles to the CC companies who give the miles to customers who spend. So if spending goes down won't there be fewer miles to buy?
Or is the point that general spending with CCs isn't correlated with people buying airfares?
Indenting to get fake-blockquote style makes your comment completely unreadable on mobile, and in this case also on desktop without a lot of annoying horizontal scrolling. Please consider not doing it. If you need to indicate a quote, you can always do paragraphs in italics, or use quotation marks, or just say you're quoting and indicate where the quote ends.
When people have money troubles they cut down their spending. Non business airline travel would be an expenses they would cut first. But the airlines are still making money from them even if they aren't travelling because with the cards they still make money from them when they buy food.
Or is the point that general spending with CCs isn't correlated with people buying airfares?