Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Let's Buy Spirit Air

letsbuyspiritair.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–628 of 628 posts

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#621

Post by dghlsakjg »

boppo1 wrote: post #540
dghlsakjg wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever flown spirit or any of the other ultra low cost carriers? It very much is a different experience than flying a legacy domestic mainline carrier. I’m not alone amongst people i know who will happily fly the cheap seats on United/Delta/AA but won’t even look at a ticket from Spirit or Frontier even at a significant discount. Compare it to a flag carrier like Singapore air and it is a shockingly different…

>Compare it to a flag carrier like Singapore air and it is a shockingly different product Never flown one of these, can you describe the difference? Hard agree about what you said about the others.

Staff that are unfailingly polite, comfortable seats in all classes, well maintained interiors, a culture of excellence. It is an airline that competes on being the best experience possible. My FIL used to do a lot of business in Singapore, and exclusively flew them on any route that was possible mostly economy and business class, but a spend that was high five figures per year, in the top tier of whatever their points program was. A staff member who knew what he looked like would meet him at the curb and walk him into a private check in cubicle. Even if you aren't one of their frequent fliers, they just treat you far better than you can expect from EU/NA airlines.

US mainline carriers try to get the high end travellers in first class, while also trying to run an ultra low cost carrier with the new "basic" class tickets. They end up doing a mediocre job at both by not hitting the level of service that Asian airlines provide, and not having the low prices that the Ryanair's of the world give you.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#622

Post by lazyasciiart »

victorbjorklund wrote: post #279
lazyasciiart wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The end goal is not letting the airline cancel the ticket of the lowest paid passenger when they overbook, for one example. An efficient market simply doesn't serve the people who can't pay enough to be attractive customers: it makes poor people either pay more or not fly. It can also change those rules on the fly by e.g. cancelling flights without enough passengers booked, or selecting the person with the lowest value customer profile to bump when a flight is overbooked.

Regulations are usually introduced when people realize that the very efficient corporate choice like 'cancel underbooked flights, sell as many tickets as we can for each flight and bump the lowest paying passengers at boarding time' really screws over passengers. In the US, this is accompanied by giant waterfalls of public money being spent on the infrastructure required by airlines to cover the overhead that is mandated, like airports and air traffic controllers.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#623

Post by eru »

folkrav wrote: post #373
eru wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are so much better, why do they need subsidies?

This line of thinking assumes being profitable is the only thing that makes something desirable or not.

If you desire something, you should be willing to put your money where your mouth is.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#624

Post by jodrellblank »

exabrial wrote: post #620
jodrellblank wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When CEOs and shareholders take all the money out of a company while doing none of the work, you think it's fine. When workers do the work and get the money, you think it's "bleeding the company dry". Unions are one of the more effective ways for workers to fight back against "divide and conquer". Unions work to slightly adress the massive power imbalance between employer and employee; that's why the wealthy hate the…

LOL the company is dead.

Management being the "buck stops here" people, being in their position because they claim to be good at running a company, being paid more to take responsibility for the safe running of the company. And now washing their hands of responsibility and blaming the employees.

Why are you being hoodwinked by this?

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#625

Post by devilbunny »

spockz wrote: post #359
jhgorrell wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"you are already rebooked" -- they were fab.

Same here for KLM.

SkyTeam in general has superb service. I have in the past decade flown Delta, Air France, KLM, and Aeromexico, and all have curbstomped my American Airlines and British Airways experiences.

The service on the plane isn’t a big deal, but in my experience strongly resembles the service off it.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#626

Post by boppo1 »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #621
boppo1 wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Compare it to a flag carrier like Singapore air and it is a shockingly different product Never flown one of these, can you describe the difference? Hard agree about what you said about the others.

Staff that are unfailingly polite, comfortable seats in all classes, well maintained interiors, a culture of excellence. It is an airline that competes on being the best experience possible. My FIL used to do a lot of business in Singapore, and exclusively flew them on any route that was possible mostly economy and business class, but a spend that was high five figures per year, in the top tier of whatever their poin…

Thank you for elucidating!

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#627

Post by sgerenser »

themafia wrote: post #543
sgerenser wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No airline operates a credit card company. They just put their name on a card and sell miles at a discount in bulk to credit card companies like Chase or Citi.

Of course they do. Why do you think they get money in return? You don't think that's linked to performance? They just put their name on a card, get a fixed amount of monthly money, and that's enough to let them lead at a loss on airline tickets? Hacker News has become simple minded. It's embarassing.

Missed this so coming in very late, but wow this is unbelievably off the mark. The airlines do not operate a credit card company, full stop. They sell airline miles, at a fixed rate per mile, to the credit card companies. That’s it. Citi, Chase, CapitalOne, etc. are the ones that operate the credit cards.

Re: Let's Buy Spirit Air

#628

Post by folkrav »

eru wrote: post #623
folkrav wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of thinking assumes being profitable is the only thing that makes something desirable or not.

If you desire something, you should be willing to put your money where your mouth is.

What a reductive and narrow definition of desirability.
Post reply on HN