Is it me?
Or is all this Maintenance being conducted by American Airlines and United a cover for something else going on?
posted by LC Greenwood at 2:00 PM
Friday, April 11, 2008
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6 Comments:
Probably not you. If you're thinking conspiracy theory against the country or something, probably not. Conspiracy against people who already paid for their tickets, yes. Part of our friend "Peak Oil" hitting the fan is: when oil hits $200 a barrel, that's when ALL airlines go out of business. We've already seen airlines cut nearly every cost they've been able to without just outright getting rid of stewards and baggage help ("just get on the plane your damn selves with your luggage, there's a 12 pack of soda underneath one of these seats, help yourselves). During W's presidency oil has gone from the 30's to 100+ a barrel. So we're at the halfway point to a total airline industry bust.
Of course, at $200 a barrel we the people are in serious trouble and would have far more serious problems than not being able to fly.
You're a big airline, you've been losing out to the cheap bastards at Southwest and ATA in the last few years...and suddenly ATA and two other airlines just disappear overnight. You've been trying to compete with them for years for super low rates, with the rising oil prices killing your remaining profit. Poof, they're gone (ATA announced their bankruptcy and complete service cancellation the night before they fired all their employees).
So, what do you do? You've already sold all your own flights at prices way below the cost you'd need to charge to be a healthy company, and the competition that forced you to slash prices is gone. SO, maybe you ought to look at those planes again, make sure they're in running order, and sorry to cancel your flight, but if you want to book another at our new rates, please do.
Either it's by accident and AA and United are freaking out and this is an opportunity that they are taking advantage of so they can start charging more, OR this is much like the railroad companies of the 1800's, with the big ones undercutting the prices of the smaller train companies, until those go out of business and new monopolies can start charging whatever they want.
-paul
If I can just stick my pretty little nose in here, too. I'm totally down with generation of conspiracy theories as exercises in thinking outside your mom.
The only story that I can correlate to this coordinated anal-retention (other than Paul's great observations) is the whistle getting blown on Southwest's maintenance scheduling.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/southwest.faa.inspection/index.html
right on, Paul.
And here's one for your therapist - I continually fly Southwest, and feel guilty about it, from "purchase airfare" to "flight attendants prepare for landing". I know the prices are artificially low, and that this isn't really reflecting reality.
But I do it, the same way I'd think about grabbing a tankful of 35 cent gas if you heard there was a glitch at the local Shell.
I blame the Liberals.
I blame the fall of the Soviet Union for EVERYTHING now.
Wasn't the world such a better place to live when we were fighting the 70's and 80's era "Evil Empire"... as opposed to the new and decidedly more frightening "Evil Empire"?
Onion Article about Southwest.
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