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Let's Buy Spirit Air

letsbuyspiritair.com

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Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#271

Post by hakunin »

eru wrote: post #262
hakunin wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When something is that drastically different, it becomes different in kind. For example, if you have high network latency, you cannot jam (play live music) with friends remotely. If you have low latency, you can. Just because the difference is in a single value (I.e. net speed) doesn’t mean it doesn’t change the fundamental nature of what’s possible. Air travel makes the kind of business, shipping, and attendance pos…

That doesn't mean we should subsidise it.

I’m responding to a claim that there’s nothing “magical” about air travel. It literally enables things otherwise impossible.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#272

Post by oezi »

fluffyllemon wrote: post #107
Nican wrote: post #47

I remember reading about how the major airlines now are more of a "bank that happens to have planes," due to the loyalty programs being worth significantly more than the airline. Delta Air Lines earned $8.2 billion from American Express in 2025, surpassing ticket sales revenue. [1] I primarily use my favorite's airlines credit card because it gives me perks such as priority seating, and free checked bags. I am pretty…

> 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.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#273

Post by parineum »

hilariously wrote: post #116
gruez wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!"

Company is valuable to us as a society in a fundamental way but is fucking us up in all sorts of unique ways: They might need to be a regulated utility.

Hopefully we can regulate them like California electricity and let one airline be active per airport and let them charge more than triple national rates.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#274

Post by victorbjorklund »

4k0hz wrote: post #89
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.…

Airlines were heavily regulated in the US and essentially operated as government contractors until 1978 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Aeronautics_Board

Was it cheaper or more expensive for the public to fly on them during that time or after deregulation?

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#275

Post by user_7832 »

nerdsniper wrote: post #118
mylifeandtimes wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evidence? Isn't the state the expression of the people's will? That's the theory of democracy, isn't it? Also, any evidence or reason to believe that an extraction-based capitalist model is more aligned with customer interests (where the customer is the thing value is extracted from, and where corporate leadership salaries are directly tied to how much they can grift from the customers) than a government where the in…

“citizens”, “customers” and “politicians” are three different groups. The government might want to use the airline as tax revenue, artificially increasing prices on customers to support non-customers. Or the government may want to give their airline unfair advantages, which would decrease real competition and create a brittle industry. Or the government might want to strangle their own company, in order to declare th…

Very limited knowledge, but Air India (a full-fat govt owned airline till recently) didn't really have any of this. Yeah it was losing money, but the customer facing aspects were mostly standard - if anything, more standardized than other private players.

One could make an argument that "Well look, it was costing the government taxpayer money!", and that's a valid point. But given how little the variation in prices are across airlines in India, it's similar to saying "The govt shouldn't do public transport if it loses money, even if society gains".

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#276

Post by victorbjorklund »

cuuupid wrote: post #68
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.…

The company is not forced to sell immediately to whoever offers it money, they can sell themselves off for parts. I heavily doubt PE firms are interested here as there is no potential for growth or a multiple. Spirit's assets are mainly their fleet, there are like 4 maybe 5 people who could buy, of these 2-3 are facing similar financial crises. In the US I think nobody except United can afford to make a move, more li…

Huh? What do you mean? They and Wizz air are public companies. Nothing would stop them from selling their planes etc.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#277

Post by victorbjorklund »

ajkjk wrote: post #66
wat10000 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the industry is extremely efficient. Why would we want to turn this into regulated utilities?

sounds like it's not efficient at all? it's barely functional as a business and is only surviving on grifty addons?

It’s perfectly competitive. There is no rent seeking on the core.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#278

Post by SkiFire13 »

_jackdk_ wrote: post #202
Nican wrote: post #47

I remember reading about how the major airlines now are more of a "bank that happens to have planes," due to the loyalty programs being worth significantly more than the airline. Delta Air Lines earned $8.2 billion from American Express in 2025, surpassing ticket sales revenue. [1] I primarily use my favorite's airlines credit card because it gives me perks such as priority seating, and free checked bags. I am pretty…

> I am pretty certain that the credit card fees (that is passed on to the merchant) does not come close to the value that I gain for my credit card loyalty. Generally it's the interchange fees that fund reward programs (charged between banks), not the merchant fee. https://stripe.com/au/resources/more/interchange-fees-101-wh...

> charged between banks

It generally depends on the contract the merchant has with payment provider:

- some have relatively high merchant fees to cover for interchange fees

- others (generally called IC+) have the merchant pay the IC fee plus some other (generally much smaller) fee to the payment provider

In both cases it's the merchant that ends up paying them. It's not a concidence that in Europe (where there are caps to IC fees) the fees that merchants pay are generally lower.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#279

Post by victorbjorklund »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #69
wat10000 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the industry is extremely efficient. Why would we want to turn this into regulated utilities?

Because efficiency is not the end goal of life.

So the end goal is making poor people pay more for the flights home on holidays so that the investors can have higher returns?

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#280

Post by victorbjorklund »

exabrial wrote: post #126
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.…

Sadly only expensive because the unions bleed the companies dry.

Not really true. If over night all salaries in all airlines would drop by say 20% overnight. Then yes, they would make a lot of money very shorterm. But then same thing would happen. Competition where they all would lower prices towards where they again have the same margins.
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