Anyone else get this email from the airlines?

NotaSuv
NotaSuv Posts: 3,860
edited July 2008 in The Clubhouse
Your WorldPerks # is xxxxxxxx

Dear Johnxxxxxxxx,

An Open letter to All Airline Customers:
Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now. Visit http://nwemail.nwa.com/W0RT018CB18829BB1C4672B1DF0300

For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers.

Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem. We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting
http://nwemail.nwa.com/W0RT018CB178C9BB1C4672B1DF0300

Robert Fornaro
Chairman, President and CEO
AirTran Airways

Bill Ayer
Chairman, President and CEO
Alaska Airlines, Inc.

Gerard J. Arpey
Chairman, President and CEO
American Airlines, Inc.

Lawrence W. Kellner
Chairman and CEO
Continental Airlines, Inc.

Richard Anderson
CEO
Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Mark B. Dunkerley
President and CEO
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.

Dave Barger
CEO
JetBlue Airways Corporation

Timothy E. Hoeksema
Chairman, President and CEO
Midwest Airlines

Douglas M. Steenland
President and CEO
Northwest Airlines, Inc.

Gary Kelly
Chairman and CEO
Southwest Airlines Co.

Glenn F. Tilton
Chairman, President and CEO
United Airlines, Inc.

Douglas Parker
Chairman and CEO
US Airways Group, Inc.
Post edited by NotaSuv on
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Comments

  • brettw22
    brettw22 Posts: 7,623
    edited July 2008
    I got it from a few of the airlines I'm registered with............
    comment comment comment comment. bitchy.
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  • SolidSqual
    SolidSqual Posts: 5,218
    edited July 2008
    yup got it
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  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 19,197
    edited July 2008
    Very interesting. Very [censored] interesting. These [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] people need to [censored] get [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] and stop this [censored] crap.

    Who in the [censored] let the regulations [censored] go? Why the [censored] can't they stop this [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]?

    Time for a revolution? ;) The time has come. Enough talk.
    ~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~
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  • mmadden28
    mmadden28 Posts: 4,283
    edited July 2008
    I got it.
    Give em hell Airlines-At least somebody finally figured out how to finally stop the wars in the Middle East. :rolleyes:
    ____________________
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  • Face
    Face Posts: 14,340
    edited July 2008
    More proof.

    http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/in-an-iranian-image-a-missile-too-many/index.html?hp

    Oil went up today because Iran released a photoshopped image. This **** has to stop.
    "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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  • edbert
    edbert Posts: 1,041
    edited July 2008
    Digital warfare Face. It's all the rage.
    I know just enough to be dangerous, but don't tell my wife, she thinks I'm a genius. :D

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  • sucks2beme
    sucks2beme Posts: 5,605
    edited July 2008
    Back in the late 70's and early 80's the Hunt brothers almost
    owned the silver market. They had 77% at one point. The price
    skyrocketed. They ran out of money to buy more, and they lost a
    ton load of cash when the price dropped down to real levels.
    One can only hope the same thing happens to these guys.
    But, of course, it might cause another bank failure and we would all
    get screwed twice. Isn't free market fun?
    "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited July 2008
    Although I don't think the letter is bad, and voices some valid concerns, I also think the airlines are victims of some short sightedness on their part. I'm not so sure they used their investment dollars wisely to identify future risks and offset them. I'm also concerned that as an industry they have stuck to a view of the future airline travel market that may not be consistent with the way consumers (both pleasure and business) will want/need to travel. It might be time for some creative thinking in the airline industry (of course they laid off all the creative thought leadership talent in favor of retaining those who caused the problem :eek:)
    DKG999
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  • dcmeigs
    dcmeigs Posts: 708
    edited July 2008
    The Hunt Bros analogy is pretty close to the mark.

    This speculation they alledge has created a bubble which will burst, sooner or later. When was the last time you saw a commodity price double in such a short time span with out a corresponding sharp pull-back? I understand the peak-oil argument, but I think the market is much too elastic for such a marginally declining supply to cause this rapid increase in pricing without help from speculation.

    The Airlines have good cause for their whinning. Problem is they have used up all their good Karma and I doubt their pleas find much sympathy from your average airline traveller.
    The world is full of answers, some are right and some are wrong. - Neil Young
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  • bobman1235
    bobman1235 Posts: 10,822
    edited July 2008
    1. I still dont' understand why the airlines don't just pass fuel costs onto the consumer. As I've said before, if fuel is 40% of the ticket price, and fuel doubles, than 40% of your ticket price doubles. Yes, fewer people will fly because of the prices, so there would be SOME loss there, but I still don't understand why this is so catastrophic to ANY industry that can easily pass the expense onto the consumer.

    2. The airlines were all in trouble long before they started complaining about fuel - the last decade has shown them all flailing about on the brink of financial ruin, so them trying to blame fuel costs now is a little disingenuous to me.
    If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited July 2008
    Bobman - the need to fill the airplane is one of the dynamics that makes passing on the fuel cost not as simple as it seems. If you pass on the fuel cost, and your airplane drops from 95% utilization to 70% utilization, you are in a worse financial situation than eating the fuel cost and keeping the plane full.
    DKG999
    HT System: LSi9, LSiCx2, LSiFX, LSi7, SVS 20-39 PC+, B&K 507.s2 AVR, B&K Ref 125.2, Tripplite LCR-2400, Cambridge 650BD, Signal Cable PC/SC, BJC IC, Samsung 55" LED

    Music System: Magnepan 1.6QR, SVS SB12+, ARC pre, Parasound HCA1500 vertically bi-amped, Jolida CDP, Pro-Ject RM5.1SE TT, Pro-Ject TubeBox SE phono pre, SBT, PS Audio DLIII DAC
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  • bobman1235
    bobman1235 Posts: 10,822
    edited July 2008
    dkg999 wrote: »
    Bobman - the need to fill the airplane is one of the dynamics that makes passing on the fuel cost not as simple as it seems. If you pass on the fuel cost, and your airplane drops from 95% utilization to 70% utilization, you are in a worse financial situation than eating the fuel cost and keeping the plane full.

    Ahh, interesting. These are the things people never mention so I'm constantly confused by what the problem is.
    If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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  • sucks2beme
    sucks2beme Posts: 5,605
    edited July 2008
    Bottom line- the cost of flying is lower than it should be.
    Raising it lowers demand. Ugly problem. The ticket prices reflect heavily
    on last minute tickets bringing premiums. Less and less people are flying last minute.
    Thats killing them. In the 90's, the last minute business travelers were where the
    profits were coming from.
    "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson
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  • brettw22
    brettw22 Posts: 7,623
    edited July 2008
    The reason that Southwest had been so profitable for so many years when the other big names were tanking one by one is how they contracted their fuel purchase pricing past what everyone else had.

    Granted, that contract has since passed, and they're among the others getting hit, but for a while they were posting profits when others were merging or going bankrupt.
    comment comment comment comment. bitchy.
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited July 2008
    If I can't get the 14 day advance discount, I need president of the business unit approval to book the ticket. So that pretty much eliminates our sales team's last minute emergencies where you have to fly to the far ends of the earth for that all important 1 hr meeting with a client.

    I'm OK with that ............. really I am :cool:
    DKG999
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    Music System: Magnepan 1.6QR, SVS SB12+, ARC pre, Parasound HCA1500 vertically bi-amped, Jolida CDP, Pro-Ject RM5.1SE TT, Pro-Ject TubeBox SE phono pre, SBT, PS Audio DLIII DAC
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