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Spanair is shutting down
just announced...
IN SPANISH: http://www.preferente.com/transporte...at-179826.html I would start calling the ticketing carrier if you have upcoming travel on JK. |
Oh dear, another triumph for the business geniuses at SAS. The link seems to say that JK is closing down with immediate effect - although their website seems to be business as usual. Obviously a pain in the neck for people with booked flights, and above all a tragedy for the employees not least given Spain's already dire unemployment rate. They don't fly to the UK so the absence of their network won't make any difference to me, but I do have flights booked to and from Spain with LX next week so I guess I'll be noticing a sudden gaping hole in the *A lounge network! Don't remember if JK was also the handling agents for the other *A carriers - that could be messy!
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The only other latest news I can find is http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8CR21K20120127 El País http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2012/01/...57_912827.html |
Bugger, got a booking with them next week. Time to look for other options. Commiserations to all staff.
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Very sad news, especially for all employees in Spain that will lose their job in a terrible economic environment. Hope they find a way out of this mess. It touched a lot of people here in Switzerland 10 years ago at SR and wasn't funny at all.
I hope somebody can provide some help with this: I have a JK ticket for ZRH-BCN-ZRH next March. The ticket was bought on Expedia, JK is the issuing carrier (680 ticket number) and JK flight numbers were booked, although the flight is operated by LX. What will happen to my ticket? Do you know if I have any chance of being protected by LX? Thanks in advance. |
It would be very sad for the staff indeed! I've only flown with Spanair twice, and found the staff to be most friendly and helpful.
Commiserations! |
Flight operations have ceased as of 2200 GMT+1 tonight. Booked pax are being given refunds. A few have been successful in being rebooked on other airlines.
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Found this on spanair.com, may be useful for those who are sitting on a JK ticket:
Comunicado de Spanair a sus clientes - Spanair informa de que en el día hoy 27 de enero de 2012, la compañía aérea ha cesado sus operaciones y, por consiguiente, dadas estas excepcionales circunstancias todos nuestros vuelos a partir de hoy quedan cancelados. - En caso de que usted haya adquirido un billete con Spanair para los próximos días o semanas, tiene diversas alternativas: a- Si pagó el billete con una tarjeta de crédito, infórmese en su entidad financiera sobre las posibilidades de reembolso. b- Si usted contrató el seguro de cancelación, contacte con su entidad aseguradora para informarse de su cobertura. c- Si compró su billete en una agencia de viajes, infórmese en la misma. d- Si dispone de un billete comprado en Spanair pero operado por otra aerolínea, en principio, su vuelo está garantizado. Le rogamos confirmen su vuelo con la aerolínea correspondiente. e- Spanair, en coordinación con la Generalitat, ha llegado a un acuerdo, con Vueling, Iberia y Air Europa para que aquellos pasajeros que compren su billete y vuelen en los próximos tres días tengan una tarifa especial. El precio de los billetes, según el destino será el siguiente: - Vuelos domésticos e islas baleares: 60 euros. - Vuelos a las Islas Canarias: 90 euros - Vuelos Internacionales: 100 euros f- En cualquier otro caso y para reclamar el reembolso del importe de su billete, puede interponer la correspondiente reclamación por cualquiera de los siguientes canales: · Oficinas de ventas de Spanair · Mostradores de AENA ubicados en los correspondientes aeropuertos. · Oficinas de turismo de los correspondientes aeropuertos. · Agencia Catalana de Consum - Spanair está en permanente contacto con las autoridades aeronáuticas españolas y los aeropuertos donde la compañía opera sus vuelos para hacer frente a esta situación. - Tanto el Spanair Center (900.13.14.15 – desde fuera de España +34 971 916 047) como nuestras Oficinas de Ventas en los aeropuertos permanecerán abiertas para atenderle. - Para disponer de información actualizada, le rogamos consulten nuestra página web www.spanair.com - Spanair pide disculpas públicas a todas aquellas personas que se han visto afectadas. Barcelona a 27 de enero de 2012 - if you used a credit card, contact the card issuer to enquire about refunds - if you have travel insurance, contact the insurance - if you ticketed via a TA, contact this latter - if you bought your ticket via JK but the flight is operated by another carrier, the flight should be confirmed; you should contact the operating carrier - JK has an agreement with IB, VY and UX valid for the next three days; JK passengers can use the services of the other airlines by paying an amount between 60-100 EUR - in all other cases, passngers are requested to file a refund claim with Spanair itself or three other government agencies |
Man, this happened way to fast.
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And the CEO has been offered a job as chief executive of Manchester City
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...n-Soriano.html |
Finally. This was a long, slow death. Really bad for the employees who were quite good (at least the front-line ones). The airline was poorly managed, with an old fleet. Great opportunity for TP or LH to jump into the Iberian market. If TP is sold later this year to IB+BA, this will be a huge hole in the *A European network.
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I'm sorry to see them go. I never got to fly on them, but I seem to be about the only FTer who liked their lounge at BCN. I was supposed to fly them in April of 2010 but the European Volcano changed that. I hope the employees who are now out of work do not stay so for long.
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Originally Posted by Palal
(Post 17900173)
The airline was poorly managed, with an old fleet. Great opportunity for TP or LH to jump into the Iberian market. If TP is sold later this year to IB+BA, this will be a huge hole in the *A European network.
The biggest issue was not going early enough for Long haul (same as TAP but for Spanish speaking Americas). And they became squeezed at home by LCC's. Can we now have the SQ flight going to Lisbon, Porto ideally, instead of BCN please :p GBM |
The www.staralliance.com homepage has been replaced with a page with a statement about Spanair. It links to www.staralliance.com for further contact information, which, if you click it, immediately takes you back to the same Spanair announcement page. Genius!
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Originally Posted by Palal
(Post 17900173)
Finally. This was a long, slow death. Really bad for the employees who were quite good (at least the front-line ones). The airline was poorly managed, with an old fleet. Great opportunity for TP or LH to jump into the Iberian market. If TP is sold later this year to IB+BA, this will be a huge hole in the *A European network.
really, how many airlines in the garlic-belt are well-managed? bankruptcy and reconstruction is the way forward. not only for airlines... |
Originally Posted by Passmethesickbag
(Post 17900320)
The www.staralliance.com homepage has been replaced with a page with a statement about Spanair. It links to www.staralliance.com for further contact information, which, if you click it, immediately takes you back to the same Spanair announcement page. Genius!
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Even though my flights would never post to my CO FF account (thankfully I just got my last flight back-credited in December) they were a decent carrier to fly on. And they had really great one-way fares in/out of Barcelona, unlike Iberia. Sad to see them go.
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Originally Posted by Hannibal Lecter
(Post 17900334)
i.e. a typical Spanish airline :p
really, how many airlines in the garlic-belt are well-managed? . |
Good news! Now I have to change my two tickets MAD-PMI-MAD for February and March. I do not expect to be such an easy task to get this sorted so I will have to see how this unfolds.
Truly, this does not surprise me. The service was foul and so was their communication campaign about Spanair being "La de todos" ("Everyone's airline"). Their campaign was about asking consumers/clients about ideas on how to offer a good frequent flyer programme - not a very difficult thing to achieve, in my opinion. The lack of consistency on the transparency they were transmitting and the real service that was being offered, was preposterous to say the least. Spanair represents the average Spanish company whose incapability towards being business oriented had always been insultingly palpable. No special offers for Silver status or for their Spanair Plus AmEx Gold card holders, poor service, special fees were applied on phone bills when calling Spanair's CS, 90% of their flights suffered delays etc... |
Originally Posted by Fanjet
(Post 17900410)
Even though my flights would never post to my CO FF account (thankfully I just got my last flight back-credited in December) they were a decent carrier to fly on. And they had really great one-way fares in/out of Barcelona, unlike Iberia. Sad to see them go.
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Originally Posted by Hannibal Lecter
(Post 17900334)
i.e. a typical Spanish airline :p
really, how many airlines in the garlic-belt are well-managed? bankruptcy and reconstruction is the way forward. not only for airlines... |
Originally Posted by Shareholder
(Post 17901642)
Country is in a recession and disposable income limited. Not a complete surprise for an airline with limited overseas exposure. If CEO was so bad why is Manchester hiring him?
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I travel to Spain 1-3 times a year for holiday. When I was in the UK a couple of weeks ago the news reported the unemployment rate in Spain is 22%; among the under 25, the unemployment rate is close to 50%. Each time I go (three times in 2011), more stores in Torremolinos and Malaga are closed. When the Spanish tourists come to Torremolinos they are tending to come for less days and spend less money.
So, a leisure airline like Spanair without the capital of say, Iberia, poorly run or not would have a rough time. I was shocked on one trip that the middle seats in business class were also sold and occupied. Other than a bit better meal, I could not figure why anyone would buy for business class on the short flights. The BOB product was unexciting and expensive. I brought drinks from the lounge and bought a sandwich in the airport. Many of their non-stop flights were only one or two per day so clearly not aimed at the business traveler. But still, they had great one-way prices and their service were several steps above Ryanair. I hope maybe one of *A carriers will expand within Spain. I know LH depended on on Spanair for a number of connections. Doubtful that LH would waste money on a LH Espana. The economy in Spain is very poor. Looking at the Spanair site, some of their former routes IIRC included Philadelphia, New York, and London. USAir also code-shared with Spanair althought UA and CO did not. I wonder how the demise will affect US seasonal BCN service. |
Originally Posted by santarosaflyer
(Post 17902120)
USAir also code-shared with Spanair althought UA and CO did not. I wonder how the demise will affect US seasonal BCN service.
I don't think they ever flew to Philly - I'm pretty sure that was just a codeshare. |
Ugh. Zero *A options through SVQ now. Looks like we'll be taking the AVE up to MAD and zip out that way. Previously used the SVQ-BCN route in the am and then pick up another carrier in the pm.
Kind of expecting it--this airline was on life support for a couple of years. |
Finns and charter travel with JK
Somehow this was expected with the Spain's unemployment rate and financial situation. This news won't be very good for hundreds of Finns who are heading to Spain and the Canary islands when the schools' winter holidays start after couple of weeks. At least one leisure travel agency has JK's charter flights so lots of rebooking and organizing ahead.
Sympathy for the staff, they were fun to work with. |
I was scheduled to fly them BCN-LPA on Friday. Luckily as soon as we saw the news we bought new tickets on VY and are good to go. So far it seems that there isn't a lot of chaos at the airports, though JK's web site includes an onerous-sounding statement that they will try to keep ticket offices open if safety and security permit.
This is coming as a surprise because everyone assumed QR were going to buy them. When talks fell through on Thursday JK were left with no options for more operating capital and the Catalan government is broke so couldn't "help them out" again. 13 hours ago they posted what was, for me, a very sad last tweet, saying goodbye and thanks for everyone's confidence during the years. There are one million families in Spain that have all members unemployed. This is going to add another two thousand people looking for work. |
Star Alliance still has this page (as of 6AM Central Time USA Jan-28)
http://www.staralliance.com/en/about...-air_airlines/ Wonder they will edit their website.....obviously not as fast as Spanair shut down. |
Originally Posted by snod08
(Post 17902656)
Star Alliance still has this page (as of 6AM Central Time USA Jan-28)
http://www.staralliance.com/en/about...-air_airlines/ Wonder they will edit their website.....obviously not as fast as Spanair shut down. |
Spanair-Ceased Operations
Don't think I saw this posted yet...
Spanair operations ceased We have received notice that our Star Alliance partner Spanair (airline code: JK) has ceased operations. We are working on the reaccomodation policy and procedure and will communicate more information as soon as we have details. |
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Originally Posted by CMK10
(Post 17900209)
I seem to be about the only FTer who liked their lounge at BCN
A few years ago I had the vision to join M&M instead of Spanair Plus, but with my Silver elite I could only access the lounge when flying LX, not any other *A airline or even JK, something which really pissed me off. Being the only *A one in Barcelona. I wonder who's going to handle it now.
Originally Posted by Hannibal Lecter
(Post 17900334)
i.e. a typical Spanish airline :p
Originally Posted by santarosaflyer
(Post 17902120)
But still, they had great one-way prices and their service were several steps above Ryanair.
Originally Posted by santarosaflyer
(Post 17902120)
Doubtful that LH would waste money on a LH Espana.
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Originally Posted by Hannibal Lecter
(Post 17900334)
i.e. a typical Spanish airline :p
really, how many airlines in the garlic-belt are well-managed? bankruptcy and reconstruction is the way forward. not only for airlines... What killed JK was the AVE high-speed train. Cheaper, faster and less stressful. Luckily for BA domestic operations, we have such a crap railway service. |
Thank goodness!! I had been considering an award ticket that would include Spanair just a bit ago!
Hope all the employees, etc. land on their feet as much as possible. |
Looks like SAS saw this coming when they divested much of their stake in 2009. From what I read talks with Qatar were unsuccessful prompting the immediate shutdown. !Que lastima!
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Originally Posted by 100countrygoal
(Post 17907078)
...
Hope all the employees, etc. land on their feet as much as possible. Spanair has only been able to rebook on other carriers 1/3 of the 22,000 passengers trying to get where they need to be. Not good. |
Originally Posted by asterion
(Post 17906492)
Luckily for BA domestic operations, we have such a crap railway service.
Work that one out! |
Originally Posted by zigzagg900
(Post 17907205)
Looks like SAS saw this coming when they divested much of their stake in 2009.
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Originally Posted by Passmethesickbag
(Post 17907459)
Yes, I thought that bit seemed quite clever until it was pointed out to me in the SK forum that they sold 80% of the stock for €1!
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Originally Posted by asterion
(Post 17906492)
What killed JK was the AVE high-speed train. Cheaper, faster and less stressful.
It is also not faster - at best same door to door time. The AVE in BCN leaves from Sants. Depending where in the city you live, it's not a whole lot slower to get to the airport (especially by taxi). Finally, if you have anything more than a carry-on bag, the AVE is lot more cumbersome. Overall more comfortable and less stressful? Sure. But neither cheaper nor faster. |
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