United Problems, Frankfurt Strikes, & Engine Coins [Roundup]

This week was... interesting. Filled with aircraft incidents, new route announcements, DOT complaints, and in news that I'm sure we all saw coming: jetBlue has terminated their merger agreement with Spirit. This comes as no surprise when a federal judge blocked the merger. It really didn't seem like jetBlue really wanted to merge with Spirit, but instead wanted to block their merger with Frontier. Maybe they got their way? Or maybe Spirit will try again with Frontier.

JetBlue Announces Termination of Merger Agreement with Spirit

Positions JetBlue to focus on organic strategy and return to profitability JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) today announced that it has reached an agreement with Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) to terminate their July 2022 merger agreement. Although both companies continue to believe in the procompetitive benefits of the combination, JetBlue and Spirit mutually agreed that terminating is the best path forward for both companies as required closing conditions, including receiving necessary legal and regulator

JetBlue Logo

This supposed 'partnership' with MGM is now live. However, looking at many of the details, the largest benefits are only for MGM members. Most Marriott elite members have no meaningful perks at MGM properties besides redeeming points for room. Which are not the best redemptions, and I'd rather just pay the cash price which, on the right days, you can get for under $100 a night.

Delta is playing quite the dangerous game. I feel as if they are pushing and pushing, seeing how far they can raise their prices over the competition and seeing how many loyal passengers they can retain. My fear is that they will reach that tipping point where passengers do not find it a good value or the quality of the airline does not match the price tag. And once you slip away will not be able to recover.

American just put in a huge narrowbody order for 260 brand-new jets, one thing that stands out is the purchase of the E175 jet. This signifies that American is going to continue to expand both their regional and mainline footprint. Not that we're going to get into scope clause now, but in the current market the E175 is the last jet to stand as the CRJ is out of production, and everything else is too big.

More strikes this week in Frankfurt, ground staff have been having monthly strikes, and it is crippling the industry in Germany. Whenever these strikes happen, hundreds of flights are cancelled and international carriers are forced to leave their passengers behind when departing. Scammers seemed to have latched on to this and are trying to scam passengers of their money.

Some interesting new routes from United, unlike any other airline in the US they've been aggressively expanding their international destinations. It's interesting to see not only do they have routes from the US but also their Japanese hub to Cebu. They're making the other legacy carriers look quite weak when it comes to their international destinations.

United's new routes have been overshadowed by multiple mechanical issues. They had a tire fall off a 777 from SFO that hit and descried multiple cars, an engine flame out, and they skidded off the runway in Houston. Not to mention another 737 MAX issue they had with one of their airplanes when they couldn't control their rudder after touching down.

Please don't ever throw coins into an engine, these are perfectly tuned beasts and something like a coin can cause massive damage to an engine and cause it to fail enroute. I understand that it's a part of the culture to do this as a sign of good luck and safety, but things like this do the complete opposite, and the plane will be down for hours if this ever happens.

This last story hits home for me as I've gone through this exact issue. A customer transferred points to United to purchase an award ticket only for it to be ghost award space and when he went to book, it said unavailable. Obviously being smart with his points wanted to undo the transfer, but United said no. This DOT complaint could force airlines to undo point transfers, which would be a huge win if it can happen.