United has 30 days of cash???

[Bill Nelson]

Is that an accurate statement? Anyone know what they acually have. (Not counting short term investments - fuel hedges) If they sell them, they have less time I would think.

What is there total operating costs per month? Total cash on hand?

 

[contrail67]

WHERE DID YOU HEAR THIS?.....Last I heard..and read.... they had about 5 Billion in the bank...

 

[~~~^~~~]

They are paying a special dividend to shareholders. They found plenty of cash to hand out to the owners of the Company.

There has been lots written about it on this board and in the press.

 

[Tomct]

WHERE DID YOU HEAR THIS?.....Last I heard..and read.... they had about 5 Billion in the bank...

Well I would sure hope that they have some money in the bank after not paying their bills! (ie retirement, low leases, screw their employee's etc) Yeah...great company!

 

[johnsonrod]

Is that an accurate statement? Anyone know what they acually have. (Not counting short term investments - fuel hedges) If they sell them, they have less time I would think.

What is there total operating costs per month? Total cash on hand?

Perhaps you could list your source? Otherwise, this is an incredibly lame post with the intent of scaring people. Details please.

 

[Shrek]

Is that an accurate statement? Anyone know what they acually have. (Not counting short term investments - fuel hedges) If they sell them, they have less time I would think.

What is there total operating costs per month? Total cash on hand?

You been drinking again Willie?

 

[Bill Nelson]

Source: United Ticket agent in Denver

 

[contrail67]

Instead of listening to a ticket agent...pull the balance sheet and financial info and look for yourself.

 

[Shrek]

Source: United Ticket agent in Denver

You had me goin there for a bit......hilarious - ROFL

 

[Bill Nelson]

Instead of listening to a ticket agent...pull the balance sheet and financial info and look for yourself.

I did look at the last SEC filing. It is all double talk and backwash. If it is that easy, why don't you post the numbers for all of us to see.

 

[D-Bo]

Instead of listening to a ticket agent...pull the balance sheet and financial info and look for yourself.

I did look at the last SEC filing. It is all double talk and backwash. If it is that easy, why don't you post the numbers for all of us to see.

5 Billion in there for now.

 

[twepilot]

moron

 

[PHXFLYR]

Instead of listening to a ticket agent...pull the balance sheet and financial info and look for yourself.

"Instead of listening to a ticket agent" ,you say?? Sorry,but I have no choice. I married one!!


PHXFLYR

 

[skypine69]

Ticket agents know all. which is to say they know slightly less than mechanics, who know slightly less than pilots!

 

[igneousy2]

The gate agent is technically correct in that United has about 1 month CASH.

This is a problem of "a little bit of information can be a dangerous thing"

United had 1.2 billion in CASH at the end of the 3rd quarter of 2007. United had about 5.0 billion in "cash, cash equivilants, restricted cash, and short term investments"...which is not the same as CASH. United's monthly expenses for the 3rd quarter was about 1.6 billion which gives United about "a months worth of cash"....in other words...if United didn't sell one more tickets...they would be able to cover probably 3 weeks worth of expenses with the cash they had on hand.

Cash is one of those things that once you reach a certain point it's actually a bad thing for a company to have too much cash on hand. Clearly, UAL management decided that the right balance was to have 20 days cash (quick estimate) and anything more than that, up to about 3 months worth in other short term investments, restricted cash, etc.

Since you seem fairly new to these types of concepts...

Pretend this was 10 years ago when on-line banking didn't blur the lines between a savings account and a checking account.

If someone personally had $5,000 a month in expenses and they had $5,000 in their checking they would probably feel pretty comfortable. If they had $15,000 (3 months expenses) in their checking account making 0% interest...they would be a fool. You could easily make 3.5%-4.5% in a savings account on $10,000 and have plenty of time to transfer your money into your checking account if something unexpected came up. If you had $5,000 in cash (checking) and $200,000 in your savings account you would be equally (probably even more) foolish...Keep $5,000 in your checking...$15,000 in a savings account and take the $180,000 and invest it in other things like maybe buy some real estate or open a new business...whatever.

United has made the decision with this type of mindset.

So YES...United only has 20 days CASH...but NO you shouldn't plan that vacation in Aruba for January.

Good luck