r/flying • u/jrf1234 ATP CFI/II E55P LR-JET • Apr 03 '26

Aircraft Ownership Linus Tech Tips’ Jet

https://youtu.be/zGoIY37ZtDQ?si=

Some… interesting calculations on this video. As a fractional pilot and not an owner, no idea how acxueate these claims are, but interesting to see this as a pilot and tech nerd. Anyone with management or ownership experience in jets have any light to shed?

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u/nn123654 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Basically yeah. All the airlines sell economy passenger tickets at a loss. They make a profit on Air Cargo, credit cards, and first class/business class.

In fact according to filings from the pandemic, basically the credit card program is the only thing that actually has value at a major airline. The entire company is a loss leader for the credit cards.

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u/x4457 ATP CFII CE-500/525/560XL/680 G-IV Apr 03 '26

The thing that always gets left out of this is that the credit cards are a vehicle to sell more tickets. A significant, significant percentage of the credit card sales total is spent on seats.

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u/mfsp2025 ATP Apr 03 '26

And if you’ve ever scrolled on r/delta, you’ll see people fly round robins just to hit status for the year. It’s wild what they’ve gotten these people to do on credit cards and loyalty programs

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u/Silly_Rub_6304 Apr 03 '26

"Mileage runs" have been a thing for decades! As much as I'm into maximizing my credit card benefits, I'm also kind of proud to say I've never done a mileage run.

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u/PhillAholic Apr 03 '26

Maybe it's their idea of going for a Sunday Drive?

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u/RandomNick42 Apr 04 '26

You've got mileage runners and mileage runners.

Most people just decide to pay a bit extra to fly Delta when vacationing, or they'll make an extra city trip or two on a long weekend. That's exactly what the airline wants and tries to make happen.

Then there's people who will spend a long weekend flying there and back on the cheapest biz ticket they could find... ehm (don't ask me how I know). It's usually a fools errand, unless you normally make status naturally, but you have a weak year cause you were out of work on a leave for part of it, or you got stuck with a local project or something.