Another year of travel is in the books. We've already recapped the best flight deals from a year that was undoubtedly one of the best yet and doled out some yearbook-style superlatives from 2025. But some things deserve special recognition … for better or worse.

Welcome to our second-annual ceremony for our highly coveted “First Class Award” and “Lavatory Award.” Each year, we set aside some digital ink – and space on the airwaves – to call out the absolute best and worst from the past year in travel. 

Look, I get it: Air travel isn't exactly fun – though, as a generally demented traveler and self-professed “sicko,” I'd politely disagree with you there. But really, how can we celebrate anything that involves sitting in a cramped seat inside a metal tube, drinking crappy coffee, and – God forbid – people who take their shoes off or clap when the plane lands? 

It's important for us to take the wins where we can, travelers. Yes, I promise you, there were, in fact, wins this year. 

At the same token, there needs to be some kind of accountability for the bad. The airlines, hotel chains, travel sites, banks, and credit card companies that connect our world make billions of dollars while doing so. Their CEOs alone pocket tens of millions of dollars a year. We shouldn't let their negative changes and nickel-and-diming – the stuff that might otherwise have been forgotten, due to recency bias in the never-ending news cycle – fade away without recognition. 

So who wins our second First Class Award? Who's taking home the Lavatory Award for letting us all down this year?

 

 

 🥂 The 2025 First Class Award: Delta SkyMiles Flash Sales

2024's winner: The American traveler, for capitalizing on some unbelievable deals while getting stronger consumer protections from the federal government

It's official: Delta Air Lines has gone from worst to first. 

One year after finishing in the toilet thanks to its haphazard handling of the worst meltdown in company history, Delta deserves a spot atop the podium in 2025. Because despite nearly a decade of nonstop hate for being “worthless,” travelers with SkyMiles chalked up some big wins in 2025 – and that stands out compared to the slew of nasty devaluations from other carriers and hotel chains.

OK, I can sense your judgment already. It's palpable.

So let me be clear: Yes, Delta SkyMiles rates are still maddeningly unpredictable. And yes, the lack of an award chart to set those prices in stone means Delta often charges sky-high rates – especially up in business class, where seeing 300,000 SkyMiles or more each way remains the norm.

But we're not awarding our First Class Award to Delta SkyMiles as a whole. It's going explicitly to Delta SkyMiles flash sales: when the airline randomly slashes rates on routes near and far, in economy and – increasingly – in business class, too.

And as the year comes to a close, it's glaringly obvious to us that those sales were better than ever in 2025. And they just keep coming, like:

  • A nationwide SkyMiles flash sale to Europe for under 26,000 SkyMiles (or as low as 18,600) … roundtrip!
  • A recent Delta One sale to Europe for as low as 98,000 SkyMiles – the first one-way discount on business class awards to Europe that we've seen in at least six years
  • Roundtrips to Cabo (SJD) or Puerto Vallarta (PVR) in Mexico for under 9,000 SkyMiles … or Cancún (CUN) as low as 7,000 SkyMiles total
  • One-ways in Delta One Suites on the airline's upcoming route to Hong Kong (HKG) from 94,000 SkyMiles each way
  • All the way to Australia in a business class suite from 102,000 SkyMiles each way on the new route to Brisbane (BNE)
  • Sale after sale to Taipei (TPE), including 25,000-mile roundtrips in economy and 85,000 miles each way in business class
  • Ditto for the new route to Marrakech (RAK), which sold as low as 25,000 SkyMiles roundtrip or 170,000 SkyMiles roundtrip in Delta One

 

Delta One flight deal to Tokyo

 

All those sales dropped in 2025. And honestly, I could go on and on and on: We sent more deeply discounted SkyMiles deals to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members this year than any year prior … and it wasn't even close.

What a turnaround for Delta – and not just as last year's Lavatory Award winner, but for SkyMiles itself. 

Just two years ago, we bemoaned the sad state of SkyMiles due largely to the disappearance of these once-excellent sales. We told everyday travelers and diehard Delta loyalists alike to rethink swiping their SkyMiles Amex cards everywhere. 

But in both quantity and quality, SkyMiles sales are back, baby. And we are here for it. 

 

delta plane in a dark blue sky

 

Read more: The Best Delta SkyMiles Deals of the Year

Now, let’s not give Delta too much credit here. Airlines aren’t in the business of doing something nice out of the goodness of their hearts – especially not the financially successful ones. There's a reason for this … and I'm betting it's partly because CEO Ed Bastian is suddenly seeing Scott Kirby and United Airlines' globe logo in his metaphorical rearview mirror.

For the better part of the last decade, Delta could afford to treat SkyMiles as an afterthought – and that' s exactly what they did. Customers would keep flying Delta because of its reliability, superior service, and “premium” brand. Earning and redeeming SkyMiles was just a bonus.

But now, United is hot on Delta's heels, and the bar is higher. The airline needs give travelers more reasons to keep flying with Delta – and, perhaps most importantly, to juice that all-important American Express revenue. What better way to incentivize your customers to keep swiping their co-branded credit card and earn miles than to keep throwing out tantalizing deals?

Maybe the steady stream of SkyMiles flash sales will end as 2026 begins. Maybe this emerging trend was really just a clever way to convince SkyMiles members to burn their burgeoning mileage balances before the year ends. Miles are a liability for airlines, and a sizable one at that. 

Certainly, these deals are the “clearance meat” of the award travel world – a crafty way for Delta to offload empty seats on struggling routes or during off-peak travel periods that would otherwise go out empty. But after writing off SkyMiles altogether, that meat is looking tastier than ever.

Keep it coming, Delta.

Runner up: American Express for its shockingly successful relaunch of a nearly $900-a-year American Express Platinum Card®

 

🚽 The Lavatory Award: Southwest's Desperate Transformation

2024's winner: Delta's messy “CrowdStrike” meltdown

… et tu, Southwest?

That's how 2025 felt as Southwest made what is undoubtedly the biggest change – something it swore it would never do: Cut free bags for all passengers. 

It was the end of era … yet also just the tip of the iceberg of the desperate changes Southwest set in motion, an activist investor breathing down its neck. Southwest also: 

 

southwest fare breakdown

 

 

Put it all together, and it's a drastic and painful transformation. It triggered a massive backlash and a chorus of once-diehard Southwest fans wondering: “What reason do I have to fly them anymore?”

Like many of you, I've come to expect nothing but the worst from most airlines. But this was Southwest – the airline that, for decades, did things differently. Long after every other airline in the country began nickel-and-diming passengers for everything from bags to seats to snacks, Southwest held firm.

But 2025 made it official: For better or worse, this isn't the late founder Herb Kelleher's Southwest anymore. Honestly, you might as well rename the airline.

Once beloved by both Wall Street and everyday travelers alike for posting consecutive profits while offering consumer-friendly policies, the airline has been struggling financially in the post-pandemic travel boom. And an activist investor, Elliott Management Group, has pushed Southwest's leadership to make changes that will make them more money … by doing what its competitors have been doing for years.

There's a lot for once-loyal Southwest flyers to loathe here, but bag fees undoubtedly hurt the most.
 

 

As of May 28, only the priciest “Choice Extra” fares get you free checked luggage. Travelers with status or a Southwest credit card in their wallets can also get free luggage. Why on earth would Southwest ditch its differentiator?

Charging for bags is a (multi) billion dollar business – literally: U.S. airlines made more than $7 billion on luggage alone in 2024, according to federal data. American, Delta, and United each pulled in more than $1 billion in bag fees last year. And by making free bags a key perk, Southwest knows it will be able convince more and more travelers to grab (and spend on) one of its credit cards.

But the rollout hasn't exactly been smooth. More than six months later, the airline still can't charge for bags online, meaning Southwest flyers who want to bring a bag have to pay on the spot at the airport. Yes, really.

In the wake of these changes, our survey this spring found that more than two-thirds of frequent Southwest flyers were considering (or already booking) other carriers as a result of that baggage policy change. Southwest, meanwhile, swore that its loyal customers weren't fleeing for competitors.

It's sad that this is what it has come to. It's even sadder that this might work for Southwest – at least for their bottom line. 

But bigger picture, every successful airline in the world has a story to tell. Delta is the on-time machine, the “premium” airline that installed more seatback screens as its competitors ripped them out. United is the reinvigorated competitor. Emirates is the luxurious airline with showers and an onboard bar that connects the world. 

What is Southwest's story now? Being the same – or worse – as everyone else? 

Runners up: Everyone in Washington, D.C. for 46 days of shutdown travel chaos; Hilton for making my hot hotel take look bad with a trio of brutal devaluations