another Ch. 11 EOS

[Andy]

OK, I can see that there are a lot of pilots who are unfamiliar with how easy it is to upgrade as a Frequent Flyer.
I'm a 1K at United. I flew IAD-FRA/MUC ~8 round trips last year - 16 flights. I flew on govt Y fares; ~$1K round trip.
I flew in coach once or twice out of 16 trips.
I used 6 of my SWUs (systemwide upgrades) for upgrades (actually 8; I used 2 from this year - I took them early and used them in Nov). 1Ks get 6 SWUs each year for free.
The other 6 or so flights, I used my miles to upgrade. It cost me 15K miles to upgrade with miles. However, as a 1K, I earn so many miles that I haven't been able to use them all. I just got my mother-in-law a first class round trip ticket with my miles.

Most business class passengers are on coach tickets and have upgraded.
Most first class passengers are on biz class tickets and have upgraded.
The airlines do this in order to keep their best customers. I flew ~125K miles last year on United, so the revenue that they've gotten from me makes the program worth it.

Would I rather fly on a major which has an extensive route network, accumulate FF miles, have a lot of connection options at the arrival airport, and upgrade to biz/first on a regular basis or fly on an all-biz class airline where the fare's higher than I could get on a major (due to upgrades) and can only connect to bare bones carriers at the arrival airport?
The business traveler wants to fly to Heathrow. Gatwick's acceptable. Stansted's a hike.
And there's no way that EOS was able to take connecting traffic; the carriers operating out of Stansted are ultra low budget carriers. Business class to cattle car? I don't think so. http://www.airwise.com/airports/europe/STN/STNarl.html

 

[vtwo]

The real issue was that their Financing they had set up to carry them over the hump fell through as the last minute at the closing table. The Money guys walked and the airline chose to shut down. they did not have enought operating cash on had determined by the feds to keep operating. the business plan was formed in 2005 when they started. How things have changed since then.
so they just needed this last bit of cash to make it into profitablity. with the current market conditions the way they are now their plan was sound. it just need more $ to get the operations big enough of be able to absorb some of the market swings.


and now it really don't matter what I think. or you for that matter. they are done. now it's time for the legacy airlines to raise prices.