Grant Martin

The Ryanair and Spirit-ification of flying is almost complete.

American knows that it's possible to both rethink loyalty and keep people loyal at the same time.

Random selection was always a teaser that gave travelers a taste of the good life. It's a sign of the program's success that they're not as frequent now.

Turns out it wasn't just the staff of US Airways that was prickly.

Radical change though it may be, the legacy carriers could do worse than learn a few lessons from the type of loyalty Southwest has generated.

Lower tier members of the US Airways program who have to deal with new upgrades and a new frequent flyer number will have to cope with the most change in the merged American Airlines and US Airways frequent flyer program.

Meet the new Ryanair, same as the old Ryanair.