Let's Buy Spirit Air

Post by wolvoleo » Mon, May 04, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

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.…

Post by komali2 » Mon, May 04, 2026, 1:04 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #369

willio58 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airlines basically were a regulated utility until they were unregulated to the point where normal people can barely fit in a seat and there’s basically no amenities anymore. It used to be kind of nice to fly. That’s laughable now.

On the other side of that coin, when airlines were heavily regulated, most people couldn't afford to fly at all. The "regulation vs. no regulation" stance is the wrong way to look at it. Airlines are still regulated, of course. Maybe some of the regulations we do have are unnecessary, some of the regulations we got rid of we should really bring back, and perhaps there are others that we never had that we need.

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 04, 2026, 1:06 PM UTC

xeromal wrote: post #165

notepad0x90 wrote: post #24

I could easily afford any of their competitors but I always picked Spirit airlines. The pricing makes sense, pay more if you need more things. I liked Spirit because it was more akin to riding the bus, I got treated well every time by their staff and the experience was fairly consistent. Other airlines also have cramped sits, what little they did better than Spirit isn't worth the price, and the experience was incons…

Agreed. I make decent money as a software engineer but I've probably flow 50+ times with Spirit. Like you said, they are predictable and reliable. What I appreciated about their staff is that they were extremely friendly but also capable of putting entitled people in their place. Oftentimes on AA and United, assholes got their way but on Spirit, they squashed it fast. The only people surprised by Spirit were people w…

Post by wolvoleo » Mon, May 04, 2026, 1:08 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #80

gordon_freeman wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Flights don't make money. Airlines actually make all of their money through loyalty programs and credit card payments." If that's the case then how RyanAir survived and is thriving?

Because people take "airline X makes $50k profit, and makes $55k off of the credit card, so therefore it makes all money from credit cards" which is true from a certain accounting point of view, and also entirely false, in that it's all accounting tricks and the credit card would be worthless without an airline.

Post by exabrial » Mon, May 04, 2026, 1:15 PM UTC

victorbjorklund wrote: post #280

exabrial wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.