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0 pointsaworks4d ago0 comments

This argues airlines are undifferentiated. In the aggregate, maybe that's true. Personally, I have a long list of airlines I try to avoid flying.

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mint54d ago

Southwest was very different and I personally preferred it. But Now it’s undifferentiated itself.

I have no reason to prefer it anymore other than if it’s the best on route and price. After all, it’s undifferentiated now.

aworksOP4d ago

Maybe not related but fascinating: "Annual spending on Delta-branded American Express cards comes out to about 1 percent of U.S. GDP. In 2025, this produced about $8 billion in revenue for Delta, accounting for more than the entirety of its profit."

Atheros4d ago

New revenue model idea: Charge $40/month on a person's credit card; a subscription. This buys the customer miles. Whenever you want to go somewhere, you use your miles. I think it would work based on the fact that people are willing to pay much more money for services if it's spread out and predictable. The fact that it's pre-paid also creates a lock-in benefit for the airline that the 'pay later over time' schemes lack.

anon70004d ago

I mean a lot of airline point credit cards do something like that. Many have a fee, and you earn miles by using the card & get mileage bonuses for certain things. But these programs only make sense to a consumer if A) you’re good at finding good value for your miles and B) you’re passively earning miles by doing things you’d normally do anyways. (With a bonus for airline loyalty perks, if you fly a lot.)

Thing is, buying miles is normally a really poor use of your money, because the redemption rate isn’t great, and airlines devalue miles all the time. For example, the lowest option at delta is to buy 2000 miles for $70. That’s 3.5 cents per mile, but you can only expect to get a value of 1.25 cents per mile when you redeem them. Which only comes out to $25 in value, loosing you $45 — and that’s assuming you wait to spend miles for a good deal. (Redemption rate is worse during more popular flights.)

Airline miles are just not worth much, which is why people chase like hundreds of thousands of miles at a time through credit card sign up bonuses.

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twoodfin4d ago

Alaska Airlines apparently does or did this kind of thing: My sister in law had a “subscription” that was good for monthly tickets between San Diego and wine country.

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