Bidding for Air Canada has been narrowed down to two potential suitors. U.S. buyout specialist Cerberus Capital Management LP and a company controlled by Canadian businessman Victor T.K. Li. Both were among more than a dozen suitors that expressed interest in the insolvent airline, the company said, adding it hoped to make a final choice before the end of October. Air Canada, the country’s dominant airline and world No. 11, said it selected the two finalists because of the “higher enterprise and equity values” of their proposals as well as their lower completion risk. Potential deals preserve Air Canada’s ability to sell part of its Aeroplan frequent flyer program later to raise additional cash.But why would anyone want to make a C$700 million equity investment in a failing airline? The National Post offers an assessment…
About Gary Leff
Keeping track of your miles
It’s important to manage your miles and prevent them from expiring. Odds on if you’re reading this website, you don’t need a newspaper article to tell you that!But this article seemed like a good prompt to remind you about a free software program called Miletracker. It’s what I use to manage my frequent flyer miles. It checks all your accounts with a single click and can log you into any of them with a click as well.For a more full service option — including letting you know when your miles will be expiring (so you can do something about it before that happens!), letting you know about current bonuses, and even guaranteeing your mileage against unauthorized use — consider Mileage Manager. It comes with a (very) small cost but is likely worth it for many.
Do online hotel bookings save money?
The Newark Star-Ledger reports that online booking of hotels doesn’t seem to be saving consumers money. No doubt the median consumer isn’t as web savvy as some, and while there are savings to be had the article suggests that the savings are by no means automatic. It’s certainly possible to get four star hotels on the cheap online.The lower end properties show virtually no savings from online bookings. Of course, there’s alot less room to save on a Best Western than on a Ritz Carlton property.And it’s possible that the existence of online pricing prevents gouging at the direct reservation level as well. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting conclusion that deserves greater study.
General Accounting Office Report: Private Screeners Were More Thoroughly Tested Than Federal Screeners
Airport security screeners became federal employees, ostensibly because we couldn’t trust the quality of private contractors. But it turns out that under the old private system, the FAA ensured greater quality control than the TSA now does with federal screeners. The federal government isn’t testing the skills of airport security screeners as thoroughly as it did before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and needs to develop a recurrent training program, according to an investigative report issued Wednesday. The General Accounting Office report found that the Transportation Security Administration, which hired more than 55,000 airport screeners nearly a year ago, “collects little information regarding screener performance in detecting threat objects.” The agency’s covert team, which tries to determine whether weapons can get through a checkpoint, performs fewer tests than the Federal Aviation Administration conducted before…
What’s German for the Shuttle?
Flying US Airways? Credit the flight to your Lufthansa Miles & More account and earn double miles. Offer is valid for your first roundtrip between October 26 and December 31.
Couldn’t do this in the U.S.
Malaysian Airlines is in a scuffle with its employees union because Malaysian Airlines has grounded air hostesses over the age of 40, and a senior airline executive defended the move by saying that passengers … “prefer to be served by young, demure and pretty stewardesses, especially Asian ladies.”
Hitting Home in Atlanta
The USA Today Save Skymiles Ad that I mentioned yesterday was mentioned in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.I’m told, but have not received a copy firsthand, that Delta made the following statement in response to the ad: A very small group of SkyMiles members placed an ad in the Georgia edition of today’s USA today, stating that they were leaving Delta because of recent management decisions. (Those decisions include service and employee cutbacks and, most importantly in this group’s opinion, changes to the SkyMiles program.) This very small fraction of members – less than a quarter of one percent of the company’s 32 million SkyMiles members – are those who were accustomed to qualifying for Medallion status traveling on low-fare segments or earning limitless first class upgrades. The reshaped SkyMiles Medallion program ensures that DL’s highest revenue…
Is international first class a public good for the airlines?
Many airlines, especially in the U.S., are moving to a two-class configuration for their international flights. Whether dubbed BusinessFirst, World Business Class, or BusinessElite, the idea is to meld the business and first class cabins into one premium product. International first isn’t being purchased as much as it once was, so the airlines are trying to concentrate on a competitive business class product. This post by Alex Tabarrok on consumer behavior got me thinking about whether it may be individually rational for an airline to pursue this strategy, but collectively damaging if all airlines pursued this strategy because the existence of first class might make it easier to sell business class. When there are only two product qualities consumers are torn between two “extremes,” either of which makes them uneasy. Add a third quality and…
Soros entering the competition for Air Canada
George Soros, the major backing behind the launch of JetBlue, may throw his hat into the ring for bankrupt Air Canada. It is believed Soros’s main rivals are Texas Pacific Group LP, a firm that specializes in investing in distressed airlines, and Cerberus Capital Management Inc., a player in the world of high-yield distressed debt. In recent days, both have advanced to Air Canada’s shortlist of prospective investors. It’s been speculated Cerberus and Texas Pacific, both U.S.-based, might try to circumvent Canadian laws capping foreign ownership of airlines at 25 per cent by partnering with the likes of Onex Corp. of Toronto, or perhaps Quebec’s public-pension-management agency, la Caisse de d
The temporary ticket tax returns
The September 11 airline security tax was temporarily lifted on June 1, but it’s coming back October 1. Much of the analysis of the tax focuses on the ‘failure’ of airlines to pass the savings on to consumers, missing the point that consumers are willing to pay a certain price (and as anyone who studies airline pricing knows, that price varies under lots of conditions) for their travel. Adding a tax doesn’t make them willing to pay more, and removing a tax doesn’t mean travel is worth less to them. So no one should be surprised that prices don’t move in lock step with taxation. But one should always be skeptical of articles that talk about average ticket prices, or even worse ones that make a claim (as the previously linked article does) that when…
