"Delta owns its own refinery, so in a prolonged period of high fuel prices it won’t be as badly hurt as its rivals. Also widely regarded as the best managed of the US airlines.

Its partnership with Amex, though imitated by other airlines, is widely regarded as the best in class.

2025 Total: $8.2 billion in cash remuneration, driven by double-digit co-branded card spending growth and 1+ million new card acquisitions.

2026 Q1: American Express remuneration topped $2 billion for the first quarter alone, representing a 10% increase compared to the previous year.

Profitability: This partnership is highly lucrative for the airline, as a significant portion of this revenue translates directly to high-margin free cash flow."

It is strange in that I was just talking to some people at Delta a few weeks ago about this. One of the phrases that kept coming up in our discussions was that "Delta wasn't really an airline. It was a credit card company that owned planes for its customers to spend on."

I was turning that over in my mind for the past few weeks and was considering investing in Delta but I had not yet done so simply because despite the phrase, it is really hard to get over my aversion to investing in airlines. I don't think I will invest in Delta because I am smart enough to figure out the implications of investing in a credit card company that owns and operates airplanes, but I wouldn't be surprised if people smarter than me could get comfortable with it.