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Let's Buy Spirit Air

letsbuyspiritair.com

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Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#431

Post by skinfaxi »

rapatel0 wrote: post #48

Fundamental problem: Flights don't make money. Airlines actually make all of their money through loyalty programs and credit card payments. They basically should have turned into regulated utilities long ago, but loyalty program revenue saved them. Unless this initiative will turn into a credit card company (which nobody likes or wants to do) it won't go anywhere Private equity will likely sell the company for parts.…

> Fundamental problem: Flights don't make money. Airlines actually make all of their money through loyalty programs and credit card payments. They basically should have turned into regulated utilities long ago, but loyalty program revenue saved them.

Enough money for who? One person has a pay package north of $30 million.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#432

Post by 999900000999 »

nerdsniper wrote: post #282
999900000999 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds good if you live on the East Coast. Even with Japanese level high speed rail NYC to LA still takes much much longer than flying. You need to buy land. Disrupt wildlife, and various ecosystems. The government should of bailed out Spirit instead. They served a public good. Allowing lower to middle income people to travel helps everyone.

Trains have been proven to be able to go at least 375mph [0]. That would make NYC->SF take 6.9 hours to travel the 4162 km. The current average flight time from NYC to SF is 6.7 hours. So, it's at least technically possible. China is doing R&D on a partial-vacuum train (basically Musk's hyperloop thing) with a target of 1,243 mph[1]. That's probably a pipe dream, but worth mentioning nonetheless. > The government sho…

That's straight math. Not assuming any stops or slow downs.

According to Gemini this hypothetical train would take about 18 hours.

It would also cost hundreds of billions of dollars and a decade to build.

Doesn't do much for seeing Uncle John next Tuesday.

I like trains. I like them a lot. But they don't work over long distances. Particular when you have dozens of state and city jurisdictions to cross.

Each of them get a vote.

Honestly I'd be happy just to have quality HSR on the East Coast. Boston to Richmond takes like 12 hours right now.

Maybe the West Coast could get a Seattle to San Diego route.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#433

Post by dml2135 »

oezi wrote: post #272
fluffyllemon wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a stupid game that I am forced to play You are not forced to play it. That is a just story you tell yourself. You can make a different choice.

All loyalty programs are stupid. People waste their time on 1-2% savings. It is insane.

2% savings on all of your consumer spending isn't insignificant, when compounded over time.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#434

Post by fragmede »

tonyarkles wrote: post #108
morkalork wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Co-ops don't exist at all, right?

This is a really interesting thing, both from an ownership structure perspective and from a "there is nuance in the details" perspective. I did a bit of a deep dive into this a few years ago when there was a local refinery strike. The refinery is a co-op and is also part of a larger co-op system. I'll lay out the specifics here from what I learned. I'm not convinced either way, yet, that it could work for an airline.…

Starting one from scratch, sure, but Spirit already has the airplanes, no?

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#435

Post by carlosjobim »

komali2 wrote: post #412
carlosjobim wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a free market, every working citizen could easily afford more expensive airline tickets, since they could keep their entire income with no taxes deducted.

> every working citizen could easily afford more expensive airline tickets You mean every laboring slave. No free market means corporations are allowed to engage in slavery, chattel or otherwise. Let's be honest about what a free market actually is. Factory towns, lifetime debt bondage.

Ah yes, thank you for correcting me. That is exactly what I meant.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#437

Post by Jtarii »

bravoetch wrote: post #208
pm90 wrote: post #205

The real solution should be a massive intercity bullet train program that connects major transit hubs, like the interstate highway buildout. The massive infrastructure spend would kickstart the US economy and provide thousands of jobs.

Why do people want to generate jobs? I'd rather generate a jobless utopia where we all do art.

Hate to break it to you but the average guy that does manual labour would more likely become a criminal than a musician if you deleted his job.

What's that saying about idle hands.

Jobs root people to their communities and give them purpose in life.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#438

Post by ericmay »

gruez wrote: post #102
gizmo686 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does any of this imply they should become a regulated utility? This seems like a textbook case of the free market pushing prices down to cost. Having alternative revenue streams pushed that minimal price down; but even without that, there is no reason to think the market would have done anything other than push prices to the lowest level possible in that environment as well.

Company makes too much money: "they're extracting monopolist rents! They need to be a regulated utility!" Company makes too little money: "there's no money in this industry! They need to be a regulated utility!"

Yea that's a good one. The problem is folks don't have patience. They see an airline fail and instead of waiting until a new competitor enters the market, as they inevitably will, they want to start regulating or look to other "solutions" but these things take time to work themselves out. It's a free market, not an instant free market.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#439

Post by [deleted] »

nerdsniper wrote: post #282
999900000999 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds good if you live on the East Coast. Even with Japanese level high speed rail NYC to LA still takes much much longer than flying. You need to buy land. Disrupt wildlife, and various ecosystems. The government should of bailed out Spirit instead. They served a public good. Allowing lower to middle income people to travel helps everyone.

Trains have been proven to be able to go at least 375mph [0]. That would make NYC->SF take 6.9 hours to travel the 4162 km. The current average flight time from NYC to SF is 6.7 hours. So, it's at least technically possible. China is doing R&D on a partial-vacuum train (basically Musk's hyperloop thing) with a target of 1,243 mph[1]. That's probably a pipe dream, but worth mentioning nonetheless. > The government sho…

[deleted]

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#440

Post by dml2135 »

haldujai wrote: post #309
nerdsniper wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trains have been proven to be able to go at least 375mph [0]. That would make NYC->SF take 6.9 hours to travel the 4162 km. The current average flight time from NYC to SF is 6.7 hours. So, it's at least technically possible. China is doing R&D on a partial-vacuum train (basically Musk's hyperloop thing) with a target of 1,243 mph[1]. That's probably a pipe dream, but worth mentioning nonetheless. > The government sho…

> The current average flight time from NYC to SF is 6.7 hours. What's your source for this? I take this flight a lot and I find it hard to believe it's more than 5.5-5.75 on average. Looking at the last few weeks for one of them[0] supports my experience. Maybe your number has TSA/airport time included. [0] https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ua1777

It's probably scheduled times. I find that time in the air ends up being about an hour less than the time on the ticket.
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