Let's Buy Spirit Air

Post by tylervigen » Mon, May 04, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

bdunks wrote: post #535

rapatel0 wrote: post #48

Fundamental problem: Flights don't make money. Airlines actually make all of their money through loyalty programs and credit card payments. They basically should have turned into regulated utilities long ago, but loyalty program revenue saved them. Unless this initiative will turn into a credit card company (which nobody likes or wants to do) it won't go anywhere Private equity will likely sell the company for parts.…

This is a common narrative that simply isn’t true. American Airlines has the largest loyalty program. In last week’s report to shareholders they project it will grow to $1.5B in pre tax revenue, against a total 2025 pre tax revenue of $54bn (50bn passenger revenue). The core business of airlines is still airlines. Optimizing TRASM & CASM, with tremendous effort on upsell and cross sell of premium services (seats, bag…

Post by themafia » Mon, May 04, 2026, 5:27 PM UTC

sgerenser wrote: post #379

themafia wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but the process of underwriting an airline now somehow involves operating a successful credit card company. Which, you know, are not typically successful based upon operating excellence but upon rapaciousness of interest rates and merchant fees. I'm not sure it's great to have important infrastructure operated this way. Other than regulation do you see a way out?

No airline operates a credit card company. They just put their name on a card and sell miles at a discount in bulk to credit card companies like Chase or Citi.

Post by boppo1 » Mon, May 04, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #346

miki123211 wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair (EU) also does this, but the US is indeed pretty obnoxious here. United even has commercials before the safety video; combined with the "if you're watching explicit content on this flight, please mind the children" announcement, those flights onestly honestly felt pretty surreal to me.

United has gotten worse and worse with this. The ads after (not before) the safety video, and also before each movie you watch (and it's usually the same ads before every movie). A few years ago the ads were skippable, but not anymore. The flight attendant also makes an announcement about the United-branded credit cards near the beginning of the flight. But this is really just an illustration of what the top-poster o…

Post by solumos » Mon, May 04, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

ho_schi wrote: post #333

Reading from Wikipedia Spirit sounds like a horrible low-cost Airline like Ryanair. Why should we rescue something which hurts employees and passengers? If it would be TWA or PanAm my reaction would be positive.

Post by onefiftymike » Mon, May 04, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

RotaryJihad wrote: post #418

Nican wrote: post #47

I remember reading about how the major airlines now are more of a "bank that happens to have planes," due to the loyalty programs being worth significantly more than the airline. Delta Air Lines earned $8.2 billion from American Express in 2025, surpassing ticket sales revenue. [1] I primarily use my favorite's airlines credit card because it gives me perks such as priority seating, and free checked bags. I am pretty…

This sort of reminds me of a gas station that only sold gas at the pump. No convenience store, no smokes, no snacks, no cokes. I think it was Swifty? I know it was yellow signage. Anyway, point is they failed and went under and my recollection is that just selling gasoline alone was not profitable. The extra coin comes from selling snacks, beer, smokes, etc.