Spirit's troubles highlight a broader market trend where budget-conscious consumers cut back while the wealthy splurge on luxury. This pattern, once confined to goods, is now evident in services like travel, signaling a potential risk for other budget-focused businesses and an opportunity for luxury brands.

When a large competitor matched Southwest's $13 discounted fare, Southwest countered by offering customers a choice: the $13 fare, or the original $26 fare with a complimentary bottle of liquor. Most business travelers chose the higher fare, turning a potential loss into a profitable marketing coup.

Frame business trips not by a single metric (like ticket sales) but as a portfolio of returns. This includes team-building for remote staff, deepening sponsor relationships, and community engagement. This multi-faceted view provides a more accurate picture of the trip's total value.

Despite investor focus on its well-known distribution business, Amadeus's Air IT division (inventory, reservation management) now generates 50% of group profits. This less visible, mission-critical software segment is the company's most profitable and formidable moat.

Contrary to popular belief, the best availability for luxury award travel often appears at the last minute. Airlines release unsold cash seats into the rewards inventory bucket approximately 72 hours before a flight, creating a prime opportunity for flexible travelers to book premium cabins with points.

Many businesses over-index on marketing to drive growth. However, strategic price increases and achieving operational excellence (improving conversion rates, average tickets) are equally powerful, and often overlooked, levers for increasing revenue.

By communicating that only five customers per flight made the difference between profit and loss, Southwest's management made the abstract concept of profitability tangible for its 15,000+ employees. This showed every employee that their interactions directly impacted the bottom line.

Airlines are increasingly devaluing elite status by offering last-minute cash upgrades to non-status members via mobile check-in. This practice allows them to monetize empty premium seats, often leaving their most loyal, high-status flyers stuck at the top of the upgrade list in economy.

Instead of blindly collecting airline points, travel expert "Miles Husband" advises starting with your goal: where you want to go, with how many people, in what class, and when. This "burn" strategy dictates which specific points ("earn" strategy) you need to collect, preventing you from accumulating useless miles.