Why are the airline points called "miles"?

[elizmm]

I was recently explaining to someone who wanted to open a delta credit card that they should enter their current delta mileage number in the application so that the miles that they will be getting for their upcoming delta flight can all be in the same account.

She was very confused, she said she did not purchase the delta flight with a delta card, she used a chase card to purchase the ticket so why would she get delta miles? I then realized that she along with many people forgot about the actual concept of earning "miles" for miles flown, she was so excited to learn that she will be getting a few thousand miles for her delta trip (in addition to her chase "miles".)

I would estimate that 75% of miles earned are from credit cards. (This is based on my complicated algorithms and calculations based on the Boych Method).

[MarkS]

You say that because you probably don't travel much (TIS - or in your case BIS) and you churn cc's.

There's plenty of folks out there who travel a ton and sign up for a cc once and keep it for life. They rack up a lot more mileage from flying than they do from spending...

[Mimi K.]

You say that because you probably don't travel much (TIS - or in your case BIS) and you churn cc's.

There's plenty of folks out there who travel a ton and sign up for a cc once and keep it for life. They rack up a lot more mileage from flying than they do from spending...

Are you sure?!?
It sounds weird. One Credit card for life?!?
Very old fashioned.