Just because you found somebody who is willing to print an article that has the same completely stupid conclusion, doesn't make it so!!!

The airlines sell stuff to generate revenue....
Their customers buy stuff to travel places.....

To state a "profit" based on the money generated on the revenue side (miles sold to CC) without pulling out the costs associated with the travel "purchased" to generate that revenue (seats purchased with miles) shows a complete lack of understanding of the business.

It is like saying the NFL is massively losing money with their games, the only reason they make money is because of the TV contracts. How much of the player's salaries are precisely due to the TV contracts? We don't know for sure, but since the player's salaries are tied to a percentage of the revenue, the NFL's costs do go up when they "sell" their product to the TV Networks (just like airline's costs go up when they sell CC miles).Yet nobody says the NFL is losing money!!!!

Or how about we go the other way.... The airlines would be massively profitable except they keep spending Billions on Fuel.
See, if you can pull out a line item on the revenue side and say without it, the airlines would lose all sorts of money... I can pull out a line item on the cost side and say without that, the airlines would be massively profitable.... Each of those methods are equally stupid!!!!!