Originally Posted by
lindros2
They have the data. It's not in the generic, free, publicly-accessible reports.
Originally Posted by
WillBarrett_68
from context it is obvious that the poster meant "there is no way FOR US on the outside to judge the profitability of this relationship" - nobody thinks this is some sort of unknowable black box beoynd the reach of modern accounting
Right - I'm sure that Delta and Amex execs have a very good idea of the profit they're making, I was just saying that we as armchair commentators don't really, and the prevailing narrative that likes to say "Amex co-brand revenue is xx% of Delta's profit" is misleading to the point of deceit.
Originally Posted by
lindros2
Now are YOU profitable to the AMEX relationship (you = collective 'you' including me and others)?
I
personally am extremely unprofitable* to Amex and/or Delta (depends who gets caught holding the bag with the compensation between them). I'm aware I'm not representative of the average cardholder, but I was just using it as an anecdote to point out that not all co-brand revenue represents profit, some members are not profitable, etc. Obviously the Amex portfolio and the Delta relationship is profitable in aggregate (and Amex is savvy enough with marketing benefits I don't doubt it's a better tie-up than for UA or AA), but without the non-public data it's hard to compare that to the profit Delta does or doesn't make selling premium cabin tickets. Again using myself as an extreme example, I probably make Delta a profit on premium cabin travel while taking big from Amex.
Looping back to the original comment about diluting status harming the co-brand relationship, I feel like the profit on the CC relationship is fundamentally driven by people who top-of-wallet a DL Amex and aren't bean-counting the benefits, and those customers are not going to revolt over these kinds of changes to status. The bean-counters are already the parasites, like me
*2024 as an example, I provided maybe $3,500 in gross revenue to Amex from annual fees and interchange fees, and they bought me a $1,000 ticket (market value, not cost), paid me what will be $30/month plus $200/year in statement credits, paid for my lounge entry, and financed my Diamond status which if nothing else is giving me 4 RUCs, 4 GUCs, and another $700 statement credit.