What will the call the card after Delta and NWA merger

[MidnightVoice]

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George2037 wrote:

The average airline is running at 60-65% capacity,

I wish my flights were running at that capacity!!!!!!!!!

The ones I catch are usually running at >90%, and about 1 in 7 or 8 at >100% (ie, overbooked)

[Anonymous]

George, thanks for the reply. Mucho appreciated!

I thought that might be the case of overlapping domestic routes.

(P.S. I love to talk b'ness too!)

And sorry for hijacking the thread ever body.

[Anonymous]

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Sylviatob wrote:

And sorry for hijacking the thread ever body.

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Hijacking threads is almost as bad as hijacking planes.

[MidnightVoice]

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masdeocho wrote:

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Sylviatob wrote:

And sorry for hijacking the thread ever body.

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Hijacking threads is almost as bad as hijacking planes.

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But the prison term is shorter 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

And sorry for hijacking the thread ever body.

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Hijacking threads is almost as bad as hijacking planes.

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Silly.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@George2037 wrote:

Where the reduced capacity will occur is in the domestic market. They have a lot of overlapping routes that would be cut (some estimates are as high as 50% domestic alone), the planes on those routes are to small for international flights so probably would end up in the desert somewhere or liquidated (that's where the Pilot Union's step in Crying the blues).

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George, that's an interesting point --I hadn't thought that far. Delta and NW are the major players at my local airport, and I was getting all giddy about increased options. But I can see how it would easily result in even fewer flights.

edit: BTW, my suggestion for the new card name: the NorthWestDelta GateHold.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-21-2008 04:02 PM

[George2037]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

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@George2037 wrote:

Where the reduced capacity will occur is in the domestic market. They have a lot of overlapping routes that would be cut (some estimates are as high as 50% domestic alone), the planes on those routes are to small for international flights so probably would end up in the desert somewhere or liquidated (that's where the Pilot Union's step in Crying the blues).

George, that's an interesting point --I hadn't thought that far. Delta and NW are the major players at my local airport, and I was getting all giddy about increased options. But I can see how it would easily result in even fewer flights.

edit: BTW, my suggestion for the new card name: the NorthWestDelta GateHold.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-21-2008 04:02 PM

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But don't worry, look at the stock prices of the low cost carriers (LUV, Jet Blue, Air Tran) even with oil at $100bbl they are rising on the merger talks.  Walstreet belives they will be stepping in and begin filling the gaps.  A lot of people were worried about LUV going into PHL and hurting USAir and reducing their options.  However the end result was lower prices and more options.

I think it was USAir and American West that joined up a few years ago and they reduced their domestic 35%, but all the Low Cost's increased their frequencies in those markets filling the gap.

One example (not related to mergers but the end result of reduced flights) was the day before LUV started service a same day round trip (PHL to LAS and back) on USAir was $2,800, now it's $600 matching LUV.  That's why I think any merger that is seriously attempted will happen and the FED's will approve.  Unions will cause problems but in the end it's what is best for the consumer,  Mergers are the best thing that can happen now aside from one or two going completely out of business. 

[George2037]

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MidnightVoice wrote:

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George2037 wrote:

The average airline is running at 60-65% capacity,

I wish my flights were running at that capacity!!!!!!!!!

The ones I catch are usually running at >90%, and about 1 in 7 or 8 at >100% (ie, overbooked)

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True a lot of carriers are learning how to fill their flights by reducing frequency and setting the right prices.  Overbooking is unfortunatly a result of that, the reason is there is an industry average of 10% no-shows or double booking.  The FED allows carrier's to overbook flights up to 20% to allow for that, why stop booking at 100% when you know 10% have a high chance of not showing up and come asking for a refund (I just flew stand-by on Wen and the flight was overbooked by 12, but come push time there were 15 empty seats).  If you book at 110%, 99.9% of the time you'll still have empty seats but still close to 100% load.

Unfortunatly overbooking happens more on certain flights/routes, but hopfully your carrier see's that and is working on a fix.  I know my company looks at certain flights as "Repeat Offenders" on overbooking and react by increasing frequency in that time frame or reducing the overbooking percentage.  We also reduce flights on routes that carry less than 40% load factor (break-even point).

It comes down to fuel costs, the higher the fuel bill the more people that will be on your flight.  I personally miss the 100 empty seats on those 6hr non-stops (amazing how comfortable the seats can be when you can strech out across them), but I also understand that each empty seat costs the airline money.

[haulingthescoreup]

I read today (catching up on the papers) that the pilots union for Northwest is still trying to thrash out the final details on the merger with Repugnant (Republic) Airways from 1986 --21 years ago. That's not very promising!

[haulingthescoreup]

So, now that it looks like this is going to happen, we need to get back to helping them name their new card! I'll toss out another one:

TheNewDeltaNorthwestAirlineSkyMilesGateHoldLostLuggageFrequentLateFreedom card.

One of its perks is that you don't have to tip the baggage delivery service when your lost luggage finally catches up with you.