JetBlue announces a deal to buy Spirit Airlines. Fares could surge

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
JEDI

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,737
126
www.cnn.com

JetBlue announces a deal to buy Spirit Airlines. Fares could surge

JetBlue Airways on Thursday announced it would purchase Spirit Airlines, a combination that would create America's fifth-largest airline.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

wow.. spirit wanted to merge with Frontier airlines.
it was the logical choice.
they have similar business models.
ie: lowest prices but cram as many people in, Nickle and dime you, and offer no frills

yet Jetblue was adamant in buying them and just kept throwing cash till their shareholders said yes.

i have no idea how Spirit is going to fit in with JetBlue's business model?
 
nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,039
16,435
136
Didn't you just say they had similar business models? What's the issue?

Me brain didn't braining so good.
 
Last edited:
  • Haha
Reactions: Captante
E

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,553
3,713
126
nakedfrog said:
Didn't you just say they had similar business models? What's the issue?
Click to expand...
Spirit and Frontier have similar business models. Basically the cheapest possible everything + minimal staffing and terrible (even for airlines) customer service + everything is a surcharge. Carryon? Costs more. Checked bag? Costs more. Seat selection? Costs more.

JetBlue is closer to AA or Delta in that they offer business class, more reasonable customer service (for an airline), and not everything is an add on charge

So not only is this another consolidation in the airline space which has almost never been good for the customer but its two airlines with very different models. I mean sure there is a chance that JetBlue would make Spirit better without them getting worse but I give that like a 2% chance of happening. The other 98% is "everything will get a little to a lot worse"
 
  • Like
Reactions: Captante
nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,039
16,435
136
pete6032 said:
The airline industry is slowly moving toward an oligopoly and these mergers could hurt consumers over the long run.
Click to expand...
Oh, yeah, I'm of the mind the consumer pretty much always loses in these mergers.

Matter of fact I might even go so far as to say I hate it, daddy corporate always comes in when a smaller business gets bought and cuts costs and ruins what was good about the smaller business.
Exterous said:
Spirit and Frontier have similar business models. Basically the cheapest possible everything + minimal staffing and terrible (even for airlines) customer service + everything is a surcharge. Carryon? Costs more. Checked bag? Costs more. Seat selection? Costs more.

JetBlue is closer to AA or Delta in that they offer business class, more reasonable customer service (for an airline), and not everything is an add on charge

So not only is this another consolidation in the airline space which has almost never been good for the customer but its two airlines with very different models. I mean sure there is a chance that JetBlue would make Spirit better without them getting worse but I give that like a 2% chance of happening. The other 98% is "everything will get a little to a lot worse"
Click to expand...
Oh, derp, I read it wrong.
 
Dr. Detroit

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,384
821
126
JetBlue is fantastic! All time favorite airline now that Virgin America is no more. Southwest is still pretty damn good for short hauls tho.

Getting terminals in airports is why JetBlue did this - more routes, more planes, more passengers.

The nickel & diming from Frontier & Spirit is Horrific. Whatever there base fare is add$140 to bring a carry on bag and get a decent seat.
 
Dulanic

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
9,957
581
136
Spirit was good for short trips. I couldn't beat $70 round trips for a weekend trip. Take a backpack and you're good.
 
W

Wreckem

Diamond Member
Sep 23, 2006
9,535
1,100
126
Dr. Detroit said:
JetBlue is fantastic! All time favorite airline now that Virgin America is no more. Southwest is still pretty damn good for short hauls tho.

Getting terminals in airports is why JetBlue did this - more routes, more planes, more passengers.

The nickel & diming from Frontier & Spirit is Horrific. Whatever there base fare is add$140 to bring a carry on bag and get a decent seat.
Click to expand...

The only time I fly Spirit is if I can get a ticket with an upgrade to their big front seats for less than I can fly on Southwest. This actually happens alot for me and I live in Dallas home of Southwest and Love Field(atleast for LAS, MCO, or LGA). I never worry about baggage fees because I have a personal item sized suitcase that can fit about a weeks worth of clothes if doing leisure travel. This suitcase is handy to couple with a carryon when traveling to Europe.

Hell these days Southwest is expensive and I can fly cheaper on AA as well. Over spring break I was able to fly 1st class SFO to DFW on AA cheaper than Southwest. I’m glad I used all my Covid era travel credits on southwest while things were cheap in 2020 and 2021. With a companion pass and the travel credits we did alot of traveling June 2020 to Feb 2022.
 
Last edited:
JEDI

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,737
126
Dr. Detroit said:
JetBlue is fantastic! All time favorite airline now that Virgin America is no more. Southwest is still pretty damn good for short hauls tho.

Getting terminals in airports is why JetBlue did this - more routes, more planes, more passengers.

The nickel & diming from Frontier & Spirit is Horrific. Whatever there base fare is add$140 to bring a carry on bag and get a decent seat.
Click to expand...
wait... Bronson's Virgin airlines closed?!
 
ElFenix

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,389
8,547
126
Dulanic said:
Spirit was good for short trips. I couldn't beat $70 round trips for a weekend trip. Take a backpack and you're good.
Click to expand...
If you understood the fee structure and how to not get dinged spirit was fine so long as you were not on some one plane a day or less route.
 
E

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,553
3,713
126
ElFenix said:
If you understood the fee structure and how to not get dinged spirit was fine so long as you were not on some one plane a day or less route.
Click to expand...

Personally I disagree. They're consistently ranked as the #1 or #2 most complained about airline by a rather substantial margin. For May they had 8 complaints per 100,000 travelers compared to say Southwest's 0.79 or Delta's 1.97.

Their on-time performance is generally terrible too. Only JetBlue and Frontier did worse than they did this quarter. And while their cancelation rate is slightly better (#10 out of 17 for 'least cancellations' with Delta being the only mainline airline with worse stats) thats worse than it sounds because they won't interline you with anyone else. If you're on a Delta flight that gets cancelled or delayed enough Delta will put you on a United or AA flight. Spirit? Even if they run more planes to that destination you have to hope you can snag one of the few open spots on their next flight (tough to do when an entire planeload of people is fighting for single digits of open seats on other flights)

Spirit has the second largest network out of Detroit (A distant second at that) and I still avoid them
 
Muadib

Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
18,093
899
126
I've never flown JetBlue, but I have Spirit. Spirit wasn't the best, but no one could best their prices. What happens now?
 
purbeast0

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,453
6,300
126
I've never flown Spirit nor will I, and I've only flown Jet Blue once. Jet Blue was nice.

Typically I'm flying Southwest and if they don't go where I wanna go, it's most likely United. I have hubs for both within 40 minutes each so it's pretty convenient.
 
Captante

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,337
10,854
136
Jet Blue is decent .... they're a real PITA when it comes to getting updated & accurate arrival-times though. (also Terminal 5 @ JFK sucks!)

I would usually use Flightaware -or- Flightstats and not even bother with the Jet Blue website at all for flight info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom