571–580 of 628 posts
Reading from Wikipedia Spirit sounds like a horrible low-cost Airline like Ryanair. Why should we rescue something which hurts employees and passengers? If it would be TWA or PanAm my reaction would be positive.
“Horrible” and “low cost” are contradictory for many consumers
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> It would also cost hundreds of billions of dollars and a decade to build. Doesn't do much for seeing Uncle John next Tuesday. You just described the building of the interstate highway system, but I doubt there’s a person alive who would say it wasn’t worthwhile. I fear Americans are simple to selfish to have any desire to do time consuming expensive things that will improve their country long term. They just want b…
I would like to fix our health care system first. Meanwhile, the government could announce a bailout of Spirit tonight. Wouldn't take nearly as much effort.
Good ol Zoidberg once again says “why not both?”
If you don’t fix anything else until healthcare is fixed, you’ll be fixing nothing until the end of time
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Ryanair have been regulated into compliance very effectively by the European authorities- everyone knows they are scumbags and make sure they don’t get away with nonsense. Literally how regulators should work. They look at the outrageous things they try to do and make laws to prevent them. It’s worked very well and also hasn’t ended Ryanair (which is the usual anti regulation argument , that we can’t have cheap thing…
When's the last time you tried to claw back your EU mandated clawback for things like delayed flights from one of these airlines without fighting tooth and nail and threatening legal action? Perhaps this has improved in recent years, but when I was flying EU regularly several years ago getting that refund has always been an uphill battle.
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United has gotten worse and worse with this. The ads after (not before) the safety video, and also before each movie you watch (and it's usually the same ads before every movie). A few years ago the ads were skippable, but not anymore. The flight attendant also makes an announcement about the United-branded credit cards near the beginning of the flight. But this is really just an illustration of what the top-poster o…
Can't they just raise prices?
They probably believe they'll get more money back from selling the aircraft. If American or United want a new airplane they place an order and wait 5 or more years for delivery. No airline has excess airplanes available to take new routes. They are so expensive just a handful being idle (outside of expected maintenance winodws) would erase all profit. That means if there is a new opportunity it can take a very long time to go after it.
Airlines from around the world will line up to buy every single one of Spirit's airplanes because it means they can have one _today_. A few might even pay premium prices for them.
Airlines are a cyclical business. Boeing and Airbus gobble up every spare dollar on the back end and customer pressure eats up the front end. Then you're subject to all sorts of random shocks outside your control without much ability to adjust your fixed costs. A difficult business to be in.
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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.
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Ah yes, thank you for correcting me. That is exactly what I meant.
I've yet to hear a successful true free market argument of why slavery won't happen, or monopoly.
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.…
https://youtu.be/ggUduBmvQ_4?t=2m20s
Bonus: auto-jumps to 2:20
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…
The reason people don't like Spirit has less to do with the airplanes and more to do with the typical Spirit passenger. Most of modern life in America is an elaborate series of choices to maximize the distance between yourself and Spirit airlines passengers. All the usual euphemisms apply: 'good school districts', 'safe suburban neighborhoods', etc
So much this. I regret that I have but one upvote to give.
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…
> I liked Spirit because it was more akin to riding the bus This is exactly why I would never be caught dead on Spirit. Sartre got it right, "Hell is other people." My issue with Spirit and other budget airlines as a frequent traveler was never about the planes, the staff, or the operations, it was always the other passengers. It's bad enough dealing with people in general in the circumstances we all find ourselves i…