Comment by hattmall
14 hours ago
>Delta Air Lines earned $8.2 billion from American Express in 2025, surpassing ticket sales revenue.
Just to be clear, that isn't what the article says. It says more than what "most" airlines generate in ticket sales. Not Delta, or any major US carrier. As interesting as that sounds, it couldn't logically make sense and it only represents about 15% of Delta's revenue. It's not even a straightforward revenue stream, it works for profitability because they are able to book most of the revenue immediately and able to mark down the future expense because of how loyalty rewards are obligated.
Yes, but how does stating the obvious - that airlines make almost all their money from flying planes, and that different lenses of the loyalty program's intrinsic value is accounting parlor tricks, and that the main reason they like the credit cards is because it drives people to fly with their loyal choice more - how does that drive more listeners to your podcast? Checkmate, reasonable guy.