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.

Professional line-waiting services, charging significant hourly rates for tasks like waiting for sample sales, demonstrate a growing market for time itself. This trend reveals that affluent consumers are increasingly willing to pay a high premium to "buy back" their time, creating a new gig economy niche based on patience and availability.

Brands often misinterpret repeat purchases driven by discounts or points as genuine loyalty. True loyalty is an emotional connection, not a transactional one. This "entrapment" model fails to build lasting customer relationships or brand affinity.

Government campaigns asking for better public behavior, such as in air travel, are pointless when the underlying system is fundamentally broken. Passenger rage is a rational response to systemic failures like shrinking seats, chronic delays, and rolled-back consumer protections. Fixing the system, not lecturing the user, is the only real solution.

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.

Sludge is profitable in the short term. With CEO tenures shorter than ever and compensation tied to quarterly stock performance, executives are incentivized to cut customer service costs now, even if it harms long-term customer relationships and brand loyalty.

The highest end of live event monetization isn't selling access, but selling status. By creating tiered, exclusive experiences (e.g., meeting an athlete, on-field access), you tap into a demand curve for social proof that is practically unlimited. People will pay 'crazy' amounts for the shareable video moment.

Some airline loyalty programs release award inventory 360 days in advance, while others only get access 330 days out. By earning points in a program with the longer 360-day window, you can book the most desirable seats on partner airlines a full month before the general market even sees them.

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.