You fail to describe the method of gaming, which I believe for the airline programs is directly tied to their credit cards being used for cash (stored value card) purchases and subsequent immediate account payment (fees are less than value of miles). This drives program revenue for the FF program from the bank, and it also assumes the seat would otherwise go empty or be made available as an upgrade. It would seem this would be easy to fix between the programs and their card partners, but yet they continue to let it happen?