Why the Survival of the Airlines Depends on Frequent Flyer Programs

It was as if the Wright Brothers sold air miles to finance inventing the airplane, in the words of Money Stuff columnist Matt Levine.

Meanwhile the endless computer studies at American had turned up another fascinating fact. Although American carried 25 million passengers a year, something like 40 percent of its business came from about 5 percent of its customers. There were that many repeat customers—“frequent fliers,” one might call them. Any incremental customer was welcome, o