Fong

Erm I was trying to clear dust in my wallet and I burned FIVE THOUSAND SOL? WHAT THE FUCK, I JUST FUMBLED LIFE CHANGING MONEY TO SOL INCINERATOR

@nephew_jonathan The argument is that JetBlue buying Spirit would kill the biggest ULCC and cause prices to go up, since frontier and spirit are both ULCC, they wouldn’t kill the thing that’s been pushing prices down

Can someone explain why JetBlue buying Spirit was disallowed but a merger with Frontier would have been fine? Not helping my suspicion that antitrust law as practiced is kinda fake.

@drcbs_ If the ULCC model is truly viable Frontier would’ve moved to fill the gap on a medium term timeline thus resulting in the same downward pressure on ticket prices. If not, this just meant the govt destroyed shareholder value and jobs just to extend an unprofitable business model.

If spirit and jet blue had merged, it would have ceased to exert the downward pressure on flight costs folks are championing because that is the exact result of increased monopolization. Look at the cost of your streaming services, for example. Nor would a bailout have been good because it would have likely resulted in weakening the union, layoffs, and increased prices resulting from skyrocketing fuel costs. As such, the cost would have been externalized to taxpayers with zero benefit.

@BrandonLBradfor The merger was proposed in April 2022 btw, peak oil crisis from Ukraine war. So the oil price thing not rly. Would they benefit from less competition and more slots and routes? Definitely Would it be a restructuring instead of a liquidation if they went bankrupt? Definitely.

@CTOGod Lol yeah, not in the way you think and not in this timeframe, They would have been twice as fucked with the war Iran and oil prices.

Jet Blue hasn't had a profit in 7 years + carrying ~$5 Billion in debt, if the Spirit merger was allowed, with their $3 billion in debt, and bottom pricing model, both airlines would be going under. Next hit will be logistics and shipping, then retail and everyday items

@TrollyP71 JetBlue wanted to buy Spirit mainly for their intangible assets like gates, slots, and routes. Those will now be redistributed by DOT instead. Likely won’t see JetBlue make aggressive moves but it’ll definitely benefit legacy carriers that are already too big

When Spirit is liquidated and Jetblue pays pennies on the dollar for assets and then takes over the routes anyway where will the last 2 years have made things better for the people? My apologies for my run on blabber. Do we buy Jetblue stock this week?

@jojo789987 @AmericanAir @SecDuffy You’re paying for the privilege to fly last min, if u fly further out the prices would likely be drastically lower. Seats are also priced on supply and demand, airlines likely don’t have enough seats scheduled to meet the surge in demand

Wow!!! My family of 7 was supposed to fly on Spirit to Miami for $597.48 total. The @AmericanAir rescue fares are almost 10x that!!! @SecDuffy how is the average American family supposed to travel?#pricegouging

@Ecaspu Now you’re just deviating from ur own argument, what r u even talking about. Spirit collapsed because the business model isn’t working anymore and as an exercise of free markets, ppl celebrating or mourning it doesn’t matter.

@CTOGod Even privileges come with minimum standards of treatment. Spirit understood that better than the people celebrating its collapse.

Spirit made flying accessible to people who had no business being able to afford a plane ticket. A single mother flying her kids to see family for $49 each way couldn't do that on Delta. That's real and it matters. The ULCC model democratized air travel in a way nothing else did. The problem was never the low price. It was that the model had no margin for error. No buffer, no resilience, no ability to absorb a fuel spike or a pandemic or rising lease costs without the whole thing collapsing. When it worked it was genuinely useful. When it broke it stranded the exact people who had no backup plan. The model also needed consumer protections it never got. The price was right. The safety net around it was never built. Spirit was a good idea, poorly protected by policy, that ran out of runway when the economics turned against it. The people who needed it most are the ones who lost it.

@Ecaspu What more safety net do u need? Air travel is a privilege, not a right. The only thing the govt should regulate when it comes to airlines is safety and that’s it. Also passengers are getting refunded, not completely screwed.

Deregulation created Spirit, agreed. But deregulation without a passenger safety net just means the risk transferred entirely to the customer. The airline got the upside of the free market. The stranded passenger got the downside. That asymmetry is exactly what basic consumer protection fixes.

@crunchyrugger Economies of scale, also a stronger balance sheet, network, and even if it were to go bust it would be a restructuring not liquidation

If the merger had gone through chances are the combined airline would be in bankruptcy now too. JetBlue is barely in better shape than spirit was

@brandodunnjr Proud of you for finally deciding to get of the pc and out of the basement for once. Kiss your mom for me

@CTOGod I'm gonna stop replying now but I hope you have the day you deserve. Tell your wife's boyfriend hi for me.

Spirit Airlines didn't get the bailout because it was good for poor people and not corporate interests by the way 👍🏾

@Ecaspu Not everything needs to be protected and regulated, the whole reason spirit came to life was because of deregulations in the first place, the answer is not and very rarely would be more regulation. Definitely not so in this case when the opposite created ULCCs in this first place

@CTOGod Air travel as a percentage of income has dropped, you said it yourself. That's the market working. Spirit accelerated that. The $50 argument cuts both ways. If a $50 price increase kills the airline, maybe the model needed the consumer protection more than the consumer did.

@brandodunnjr Telling me to rest on your fifth reply is wild. Time to get a hobby bud

@CTOGod Clutching at straws now, dude. Rest

@brandodunnjr Damn, your life is even sadder than mine then

@CTOGod I'm just bored, don't flatter yourself.

@brandodunnjr You’re replying to me, so I guess we’re both here being sad and stupid

@CTOGod Is your life this sad that you have to start a stupid argument on the internet to feel some sense of importance?

@zefenaro @Crusiphonetic I think Palestinians should fucking die and we take the weapons from Hamas and give it to the Ukrainians to experiment on the Russians

@Crusiphonetic Ukrainians unironically should, would be better for everyone. But palestinians would fucking die

It really makes you think about how Ukraine and the Palestinians should just give up

@concupiscentaf Damn, with that price they gonna make u grow wings and start pushing the plane at 35 thousand ft

@CTOGod $99 actually

Domestic flights being above $150 is just insane

@brandodunnjr Crying? Are you done deflecting so we can go back to how Jamaica is gonna bailout Spirit Airlines?

@CTOGod Are you done crying?

@brandodunnjr I suggest u care about the shithole u hail from first or get ur govt to pay for it if u care so much

@CTOGod Please go be an idiot somewhere else. I suggest highway traffic.