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Posted by
11034 posts

Looks like time for anyone with tickets for travel next year to devise "Plan B"

Posted by
2281 posts

BAH HUMBUG
not good news at all for people with paid tickets, plans set and the fan gets turned on. sorry about this, keep your eyes wide open if your flights involved and book another. if it's cancelled is there a full refund or will they nickel and dime you for some kinda fee?
aloha

Posted by
3809 posts

Princess Pupule--

If flights are canceled and WOW remains an operating airline (i.e., they finalize the deal with Indigo Partners), ticket holders should get a full refund.

If WOW is unable to finalize its deal with Indigo Partners and goes belly up, ticket holders will be last in line behind all the airline's other creditors and get nothing.

Posted by
14811 posts

Indigo Partners announced that they are starting a new low budget airline in Canada. The airline could feed passengers to East Coast airports where people could connect to WOW air to get to Iceland and then either WOW Air or Wizz Air--an airline they own a chunk of and has numerous flights to Europe--for their final destinations. It may mean a few changes but if done cheaply enough???? Ultra low frills. Just a seat and nothing else.

Indigo also owns Frontier that could feed to WOW Air on the east coast of the U.S. and so on....

Posted by
2281 posts

hey dave
thanks for the info. figured that would happen. friends flew them in september, upgraded to a higher class. now it'll seems to be stand in line and wait! it's the risk travelers take to fly "cheap".
aloha

Posted by
3809 posts

Frank II is correct in what would appear to be the business plan for Indigo Partners. They may have found the “secret sauce” to make a transatlantic discount carrier sustainable — having discount networks on both sides of the Atlantic to feed it. It remains interesting that the leading discount airlines — Southwest, Ryanair, easyJet — appear to have zero interest in transatlantic flights (though many argue Southwest is no longer a discount carrier).

A final agreement has not been announced yet on the Indigo Partners deal, though (at least that I can find). I honestly was shocked when the Icelandair deal fell through; it reinforced the idea that a deal is not really done until the signatures are on the documents.

In my opinion, one should not buy a WOW plane ticket until the Indigo Partners deal closes if he/she cannot afford to lose the money and/or replace the flight last minute with a more expensive fare. Travel insurance may or may not include scheduled airline failure insurance (SAFI), so if buyers are counting on their travel insurance to cover them, they should read the small print on their policy carefully.

Posted by
3809 posts

It looks like WOW is trying to get people to buy tickets on the flights that are left before the cities are cut. I searched for spring/summer availability for the cut cities -- there is none.

Posted by
11034 posts

I wish I had a better memory of the specifics what the pilot told us about fuel burn on a flight to Hawaii, but looking at the half price fares in J+T post, they do not even pay for the fuel it would cost to make the flight, much less pay anyone their wages or make a lease ( or loan) payment for the plane.

It may work out, but I have no 'warm n fuzzy' feeling about buying WOW tickets for travel more than a few weeks out.

Posted by
7731 posts

Yep I'd only do a one way going if I needed one like next week and a one way back on Norwegian ha!
All the flights from Chicago look like legacy carrier prices

Posted by
14811 posts

The newer planes airlines like Norwegian and WOW fly are much more fuel efficient than the previous generation. The Airbus 320neo and 321neo that Indigo partners just ordered as well as the Boeing 787 and Boeing 737Max that Norwegian flies are some of the lowest fuel burners in the skies. And, they've lowered weight buying lighter weight material to build the plane. This only goes for lighter weight seats and other items in the cabin.

Most legacy airlines don't make make any money on economy passengers from the fares they charge. The profit comes from business and first class.

Low cost carriers that don't have the upper classes don't make profit from fares either. They make it from the extra charges--checked luggage, paid seat assignments, food and other items sold on board.

And also remember almost all flights carry some type of cargo as well.

Posted by
1184 posts

Another revenue source for the legacies that I don't think WOW or Norwegian has is the selling of miles to Chase/AMEX et al.

Posted by
5835 posts

Low cost carriers that don't have the upper classes don't make profit from fares either.

Norwegian has a "premium cabin" desribed as:

Premium – more comfort and extra legroom

Experience an even nicer way to fly with us. You’ll get a comfortable
seat with 140 centimetres (55 inches) legroom in the Premium cabin, as
well as

1 carry-on bag (10 kg)

seat reservation and 2 checked bags (20 kg each)

included a 3-course Premium dinner and breakfast/light evening meal

complimentary soft drinks, wine and beer throughout the flight

Posted by
14811 posts

Norwegian's premium cabin is really only premium economy and only on their 787's. It's not available on their short haul flights.