Originally Posted by
tsquare
You keep saying that we are mediocre. Insulting, which I guess is your intent, and far from true. Your buddies there in the anus of the world have basically no expenses because your governments do all the heavy lifting. Case in point. Who paid for the big new airport there in dubai? M R Rats? uh.. no... but their largest shareholder did. who paid for T4 in JFK? ummm that'd be Delta Air Lines. So how are we supposed to compete with that? You have very low expenses by comparison so you are able to give away your product. $2400 for a first class ticket. How can you sell a ticket for that price, buy $75 billion in NEW airplanes, and turn big profits? It's pure economics. You are a different animal than us, and there is no real fair comparison. We could probably fly thru some god forsaken hell hole on the way to India to compete, but since you are throwing enough seats in that market to walk on the backs of airplanes it would be impossible given our cost structure versus yours. You are no different than Peoples' Express or ValueJet. Just when the industry is realizing rational pricing, here comes some azzwipe throwing thousands of cheap seats and telling everybody they need to compete. We will, but probably cannot match your awesomeness.
And wow... open skies to the emirates. Where can I book my vacation package? I am sure I will have a wonderful time there.
You yourself said it is only a stopover on the way from India to the US. I am fundamentally opposed to a foreign carrier, especially from the ME coming into my country and taking our economy out. Propaganda? Hardly. There was a Saudi sheik investor that was on CNBC yesterday talking about how he made $750 million on his twitter investment. (Twitter has only been trading for a week or so) That is money taken from the US to the ME. Good for him, but he has the horsepower to do it, so what's to stop him. Your buddies out there are gonna take down the USA the same way that Ronald Reagan took down the USSR... financially. And if you think they are our friends, you are smoking dope.
So what's stopping you from coming back if you have had enough time zone crossing? We are hiring, UAL is hiring, and AMR is hiring... I think you are talking a good game, but you have no intention of leaving there, and that is just fine too.
And as far as the preclearance facility.. not only no, but hell no. Sorry, it is not a competitive issue. It is something far far deeper.
And as I said earlier, this thread is making me physically ill.
I'm starting to think you're just trolling at this point.
I just pulled up DXB - LAX round trip lowest first class fare on A380 - $11,600. Can't afford First? OK, let's go Business Class. Same dates... DXB - LAX on A380 - $6,800.
Pulled up the same dates on Delta… roughly $6300 in Business from DXB - LAX via ATL with total traveling time being 22.5 hours vs. going nonstop.
DXB - JFK on Emirates: First class - $11,150. Business - $6,800
DXB - JFK on Delta: Business $5,900, and that's going through Atlanta with total trip time being over 22 hours unless I want to go through Paris and fly on Air France under a codeshare with Air France!?
Why isn't Delta flying nonstop from LAX and giving Emirates a run for their money? Hell, Etihad just announced LAX not long ago. Why isn't Delta all over it and entering into codesharing agreements with these clowns for onward flights to India/Africa/Indonesia? Alright, you have this fancy T4 in JFK you're so proud of… why not give Emirates a run for their money? Oh wait, no… it's ExIm's fault? No wait, it's Boeing's fault! It's expat pilots' fault for taking jobs at these airlines… Delta can't compete, right? Come on, you can't be that gullible.
As for being mediocre… well, take a look at all world's rankings of major airlines. Tell me where US airlines rank among the world airlines… I applaud Delta's opening of T4, but… where else? What else are they doing?
Your biggest threat isn't Emirates or Etihad or Asian airlines. It's your management and it's your pilot group leadership. The management is all about maximizing the bucks. They do it by outsourcing your jobs both inside and outside of the country. Your union allows this. You have two-class jets flown half across the country by pilots making a fraction of your wage as subcontractors. You have foreign airlines flying substantially more into the US under your code than the other way around. Why?
Here's something else… protectionism DOES NOT work in today's global market. The sooner you realize that, the better. Show me one successful protected industry that's really on a global scale. US Merchant Marine?
Let's look at it from yet another angle… how many hundreds of thousands of Boeing jobs and their supplier/vendor jobs do these massive orders support? Will these orders benefit the consumer in those communities? You better believe it… and I'm talking people working to fulfill/support these orders.
I'm giving you a benefit of the doubt that you're not trolling, but personal accusations and calling these people "my buddies" and $2400 first class tickets… sorry man, I don't engage in discussions with trolls. So again, I'm asking you to keep it rational, and show me some evidence, not allegations… hard data, irrefutable evidence.