The Extra Mile, July 21: Delta’s Growing Grip on MSP, A First Class Deal to Hawaii & More

🕵🏻‍♂️ A Look At What’s Gone Wrong (& Right) In Minneapolis

Just a few years ago, the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) airport was flying high and I was bullish on the prospect of more airlines challenging Delta’s dominance … and its higher fares.

Sun Country was growing fast. Aer Lingus was back and Lufthansa was in the mix – two carriers that aren’t part of Delta’s SkyTeam alliance. Heck, even Turkish Airlines was circling for a potential nonstop to Istanbul.

It’s a different story in 2026.

Condor, JetBlue, and Spirit (RIP) are all gone. Lufthansa tapped in a subsidiary (Discover Airlines). So when Aer Lingus announced last week it would drop its Minneapolis nonstop to Dublin in the fall, I asked myself: “What’s going on here? Just how bad have things gotten?”

I turned to the data for an answer.

Using gobs of data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, I compared Available Seat Miles (ASMs – the purest way to measure airline capacity) for what’s scheduled this summer compared to two years ago from all the airlines.

Some of these numbers shocked me, like:

• Sun Country’s reductions (which includes a recently reported slashing of September schedules) are positively brutal.
• Southwest, American, and especially Air Canada have all cut a significant amount of their MSP flights.
• And to sum it all up: The most additions from Delta and its SkyTeam partners like Air France and KLM have been drastically outweighed by what competitors have cut.

I can almost hear you now: “OK, but why does this matter?”

Because if there’s one thing that dictates flight pricing, it’s competition. And if there are two things that dictate flight pricing, it’s competition and supply and demand – more supply leads to more cheap flights.

Less of both is bad for travelers who love bargains.

And here’s the proof: Among the nation’s 20 largest airports, Minneapolis has seen the biggest increase to average fares over the last two years … and with a 36% hike, it was the worst by a wide margin, according to Cirium data. Orlando was next on the list with a 22% increase.

It’s not all bad news. There have been some big wins over the last two years, like nonstops (on Delta, of course) to both Rome (FCO) and Copenhagen (CPH). And while average fares might be up, dirt-cheap flight deals are still out there – we’re finding them for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members every day.

But zoom out, and it’s clear that Delta is increasingly calling the shots in our neck of the woods.

Want to see similar analysis from your home airport? Let us know – drop us a line at [email protected], and we’ll add it to our list!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

🤝 Deal of the Day: Lie-Flat to Hawaii from 40K Points Each Way

Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥

Why we love it: This is the best way to fly to Hawaii, period. And you can book it from just 40,000 Alaska miles each way during peak season right now!

This Alaska/Hawaiian business class availability from cities all over the west coast is one of our favorite redemptions. Availability from September – March.

Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.

Already a member? Log in to see all your deals. (Not seeing it? Remove your airport filters to see every deal.)

– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst

📲 From the Thrifty Traveler Company Slack

Turns out dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail was the easy way out. Those pioneers never had to check an air quality app before going outside, or God forbid risk eating a bad taco.

At this rate, the wagon ruts and snake bites look like the safer route.

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

📈 A Powerful New Award Search Tool … Within Google Flights!

Google Flights is the single best tool for finding cheap flights on the whole world wide web. And if you ask me, seats.aero is easily one of the best award search tools for finding flights bookable with miles.

So when the two team up … well, let’s just say they have my attention. And they should have yours, too.

Seats.aero just released a new free browser extension for Google Chrome that automatically pulls in award rates from two dozen-plus airline programs. So in addition to the cash price for each flight, you’ll see just below how many miles it’d take to book the exact same flight – not just in theory, but in practice.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is: The (equally excellent) browser plugin Points Path has been doing this for years.

But seats.aero does a few things that set its own iteration apart, including:

• Allowing you to toggle on/off award rates from 30 different airline programs – not just the big U.S. carriers but their foreign partners (which may let you book for a fraction of the points)
• Or you can filter for flights bookable with the big transferable credit card points: Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi, and others
• And while Google Flights is its bread and butter, this plugin also works within the Chase Travel℠ portal

There are some drawbacks – especially for free users, who don’t get quite the same functionality as paying seats.aero Pro subscribers.

But this one is going straight into my award travel toolbelt … and, more to the point, my Google Chrome browser.

Read our full writeup on the pros and cons of seats.aero’s new plugin!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

🎙️ On the Pod: Where to Find Summer Deals

✈️ Is airfare starting to drop? The guys dig into some positive airfare trends before digging into where you can still find great travel deals for this summer. Plus, we rant about Delta Basic Business and gush about Flighty’s update.

Tune in now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

🇺🇸 AA Unveils a Trio of Upgrades Coming to DFW

American Airlines is (finally) getting in on the premium travel craze by unveiling a trio of upgrades coming to its home hub at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) in the months and years ahead:

• Its first-ever Flagship check-in area for premium customers
• A massive new, 37,000-square-foot Admirals Club in Terminal C
• A Provisions by Admirals Club (grab-and-go lounge) in the not-yet-open Terminal F

Add it all up and this is the biggest infusion of premium infrastructure American has put into a single airport, and it’s a clear signal the airline is chasing what Delta and United have been building for years.

First up is Flagship check-in, landing near the D30 security checkpoint in Terminal D later this year. It’s reserved for eligible premium customers and promises a private check-in environment and dedicated staff. Though don’t expect a private TSA checkpoint like you’ll find at some Delta One check-ins, as the press release merely mentioned “convenient access to security screening” – that detail would really set it apart.

Then there’s the new Admirals Club: a 37,000-square-foot lounge in Terminal C that will become the largest lounge in American’s entire network. No opening date yet, but if it matches the quality of AA’s newest Admirals Clubs elsewhere, it should be a real destination rather than some of the airline’s dated, more-sterile-looking waiting rooms.

American is also bringing its Provisions by Admirals Club grab-and-go concept to the airport’s future Terminal F, with bigger lounge plans expected down the road. The first phase of gates is slated to open in the new terminal sometime next year, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see AA try to have this space ready by then.

On its own, these additions are all genuinely exciting – but they’re not happening in a vacuum. American has trailed Delta and United on profitability for years, and closing that gap now runs through lounges, premium cabins, and fancier planes.

AA might be late to the party … but better late than never?

Read more about American Airlines’ big news!

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• 📈 Citi has a new 20% bonus on ThankYou point transfers to Air France/KLM Flying Blue through Aug. 22.
• ✈️ Singapore Airlines is quietly blocking KrisFlyer members from searching award space if they don’t have miles in their account. Transferring 1,000 miles into your account seems to restore full search access. (View from the Wing)
• 🎲 Kalshi scrapped its plans to let people bet on airport-wide flight cancellations just before launch, after backlash over fears the contracts could tempt bad actors to cause chaos for a payout … and after FlightAware said Kalshi couldn’t use its flight data to settle the bets. (Fortune)
• 🇵🇭 Update: Philippine Airlines will officially join the Oneworld airline alliance in late 2027, opening up its Manila hub and 40-plus international destinations to points and status from every other Oneworld carrier. (Executive Traveller)

Lead photo courtesy of Chris Lundberg via Flickr