Scott Kirby's Frontier and Spirit Prediction

The main problem is the lack of frequency between city pairs. If you get cancelled on a ULCC, it will take you an additional 2-3 days to get home. There's only so many one and done customers out there.
 
as a former F9'er, the customer service was extremely cringe, I overheard one interaction with a customer and a gate agent which the GA literally said..."only 4 days late?....but you did get here!"
 
He's spent the past year talking to cost convergence, which is probably the bigger story here. ULCCs aren't seeing the CASM advantage they once did, which means fares are reaching closer to parity with the legacies. The legacies helped themselves by introducing basic economy fares. In fact, it's been the two ends of the fare spectrum - basic econ and premium that have been driving carrier yields the past year.

While a consumer might fly a ULCC when it's a $100 fare differential, that calculus changes when it goes down to $20. Why pay $12 for McDonald's when you can get Chipotle for $15?
 
Murdoughnut said:
He's spent the past year talking to cost convergence, which is probably the bigger story here. ULCCs aren't seeing the CASM advantage they once did, which means fares are reaching closer to parity with the legacies. The legacies helped themselves by introducing basic economy fares. In fact, it's been the two ends of the fare spectrum - basic econ and premium that have been driving carrier yields the past year.

While a consumer might fly a ULCC when it's a $100 fare differential, that calculus changes when it goes down to $20. Why pay $12 for McDonald's when you can get Chipotle for $15?
Click to expand...
nailed it..

*Jesus meme*
 
Murdoughnut said:
He's spent the past year talking to cost convergence, which is probably the bigger story here. ULCCs aren't seeing the CASM advantage they once did, which means fares are reaching closer to parity with the legacies. The legacies helped themselves by introducing basic economy fares. In fact, it's been the two ends of the fare spectrum - basic econ and premium that have been driving carrier yields the past year.

While a consumer might fly a ULCC when it's a $100 fare differential, that calculus changes when it goes down to $20. Why pay $12 for McDonald's when you can get Chipotle for $15?
Click to expand...
IMO, either Spirit or Frontier is gonna have to shift their model or they’re going to die. I hate to say that as someone with all of their eggs in the NK basket but it’s true. If we don’t create a new identity it’s only a matter of time before we “ un-alive “ ourselves. Cough cough, 2025.
 
Wouldn't have been an issue if THIS administration let the merger through. But no, they had to sue to stop it.


Fact remains the big 4 control ~85% of the country's capacity. The remaining 15% cannot be 8 different carriers. Alaska, Hawaiian, jetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, Sun Country, Breeze.

The remaining 15% need to consolidate to at least get the economies of scale to compete with the big 4. Alaska/Hawaiian, jetBlue/Spirit, Frontier/Allegiant, and one more combo with the remaining carriers. The final end state of this country should be the big 4 airlines (AA, DL, UA, SW) , and 4 large national carriers (AS/HAL, B6/NK, F9/ALGT, and one more).
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Wouldn't have been an issue if THIS administration let the merger through. But no, they had to sue to stop it.


Fact remains the big 4 control ~85% of the country's capacity. The remaining 15% cannot be 8 different carriers. Alaska, Hawaiian, jetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, Sun Country, Breeze.

The remaining 15% need to consolidate to at least get the economies of scale to compete with the big 4. Alaska/Hawaiian, jetBlue/Spirit, Frontier/Allegiant, and one more combo with the remaining carriers. The final end state of this country should be the big 4 airlines (AA, DL, UA, SW) , and 4 large national carriers (AS/HAL, B6/NK, F9/ALGT, and one more).
Click to expand...
I mean I don’t usually agree with you, but I definitely do here. That said, after “ tax reform” both parties can eat a giant helping of dk.
 
It doesn't help that at F9 they like to outsource the ground crew staffing at so many stations. I found the on board service to generally be excellent, not so much so on the ground. Lots of DGAF attitude from contracted gate agents since they just worked for a 3rd party vendor and had no accountability to F9.
 
luke3 said:
It doesn't help that at F9 they like to outsource the ground crew staffing at so many stations. I found the on board service to generally be excellent, not so much so on the ground. Lots of DGAF attitude from contracted gate agents since they just worked for a 3rd party vendor and had no accountability to F9.
Click to expand...

Everyone does this, though. When I was at the last place it was Swissport at IAD, whereas we had own-company/parent-label ground crew in IAH. The difference was night and day.

At the current place, the contract/business partner services are better than they were when I was at the regional. Not a LOT better, but better.

"Business Partners" is the du jour phrasing for outsourced services these days.
 
killbilly said:
Everyone does this, though. When I was at the last place it was Swissport at IAD, whereas we had own-company/parent-label ground crew in IAH. The difference was night and day.

At the current place, the contract/business partner services are better than they were when I was at the regional. Not a LOT better, but better.

"Business Partners" is the du jour phrasing for outsourced services these days.
Click to expand...
yes but i think the post you are replying to is referencing customer facing employees, which were UA gate agents at the hubs

outstations on the UGE side, were a mixed bag
 
bimmerphile said:
yes but i think the post you are replying to is referencing customer facing employees, which were UA gate agents at the hubs

outstations on the UGE side, were a mixed bag
Click to expand...
Can’t speak for you guys but we’ve got both.
 
I knew that I would never fly Frontier after they got rid of their human customer service. I'd be incredibly pissed if my flight was canceled, but even more pissed, if I had to chat with an AI bot, that can only reply with canned answers. Also their flights offer few directs and lots of 10-18 hr. layovers. Nope.
 
Box hauler said:
IMO, either Spirit or Frontier is gonna have to shift their model or they’re going to die. I hate to say that as someone with all of their eggs in the NK basket but it’s true. If we don’t create a new identity it’s only a matter of time before we “ un-alive “ ourselves. Cough cough, 2025.
Click to expand...

As someone else at spirit, it’s going to be us. At least f9 has (somewhat) been making money we have just been flushing it down the toilet. I also have to ask why our management is still here? If his idea to “save” spirit is to attract business customers we’re doomed for sure (pretty sure we already are, that would be a final nail in the coffin).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Eagle421flyer said:
As someone else at spirit, it’s going to be us. At least f9 has (somewhat) been making money we have just been flushing it down the toilet. I also have to ask why our management is still here? If his idea to “save” spirit is to attract business customers we’re doomed for sure (pretty sure we already are, that would be a final nail in the coffin).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

They oddly spent money on this at PAPA last weekend:

IMG_2327.jpeg


I'm sure they had already committed the money and personnel to it but it's a little "cringe" considering what's going on.
 
I think F9 could possibly introduce a first/business class type of option or maybe bite off Breezes “Nice, Nicer, Nicest” strategy. At least at this point F9 doesn’t have as much of a negative reputation as Spirit yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top