Nobody holds a savings account that loses value every year on purpose. Nobody buys a stock they know will be worth less next quarter and holds it for a decade.
Yet almost everyone with airline miles is doing exactly that, deliberately, and feeling responsible about it.
Everyone's instinct is to save. Build the balance, wait for the dream trip, then redeem it all at once for business class somewhere far away. It feels like discipline. It's the single most expensive mistake in the entire points economy, and the airlines are counting on you making it.
