<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Shareholder:
Outside of Carlson Wagon Lit which manages FF programs for NW and KL, can you identify which others are operated by independent companies. Mileage Plus and AAdvantage are all integral operations of those airlines, not separate companies as Aeroplan has now been established. That BankOne gave UA money, is for the reasons you noted, to assist in its reorganization under Chapter 11. But Mileage Plus was covered under that filing, whereas Aeroplan and Destina are not.</font>
You don't get your own point - Air Canada Aeroplan is
not operated by an independent company - it is "independent
wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Canada" that has its own management, but is nothing more than an asset under Air Canada. If Air Canada would be liquidated, Aeroplan in its entirety would be sold to the highest bidder or wound down, whichever best addresses the interests of the creditors.
Aeroplan is in no way - at this point at least - an independent company and it derives it
raison d'etre from Air Canada.
An example of an independent program would be Air Miles, the company based in the Netherlands, as opposed to the Loyalty group folks in Toronto.
A second, now wound up example, was Qualiflyer, which survived the Swiss meltdown and then was split amongst its dominant participants.
The fact that Air Canada made a subsidiary company in which to hold the Aeroplan program does
not somehow make it independent! If your logic would hold true, then these UAL Corporation entities are "independent" as well:
UAL LOYALTY SERVICES INC
MILEAGE PLUS HOLDINGS INC
MILEAGE PLUS MARKETING INC
MY POINTS.COM INC
CYBERGOLD INC
MYPOINTS OFFLINE SERVICES INC
MILEAGE PLUS INC
Edited to add more companies.
[This message has been edited by msn (edited 06-01-2003).]