Are any FTer's also airline shareholders?
 

First, please forgive me if this is the wrong forum: I didn't see any forum for 'Airline Business' or the like, and this forum seemed the most general. Moderators, please feel free to move as necessary.

Generally: Are any FTer's also airline shareholders?
I'm not asking for investment advice, just curious if anyone owns shares, even just a few not for investment, but just to say one 'owns' an airline.

More specifically, I'm curious: Do airline companies send gifts to shareholders?
I've read that companies who sell physical product will often send shareholders samples and other little tchotchkes. One example I heard of was that Hershey used to send their shareholders a few candy bars. Do airlines give shareholders, say, a few FFP miles per share per year or something like that?

Just idle curiosity. :p

Thanks,
Chris

I have owned stock in both AS and WN, and sold both for more than I bought them for. Neither company sent me any "gifts" because I owned their stock. No FF miles, no free tickets, no model airplanes, no cute little pilot pins, no t-shirts. Nothing. (Although as a shareholder you do get invited to the annual stockholders meetings. I never went, maybe that's where they hand out all the free goodies!)

I'd rather burn my money directly. At least I get some warmth out of it, as opposed to the indirect route of investing in an airline. ;)

I never heard of any gifts.. especially in the airline industry!
I'd buy one share of Hershey just to get a gift every year..

I own some shares (not many) of Southwest, used to earn Atlantic Coast (before flyI, made a TON on the MESA forced buyout attempt)
I also had US Airways and Northwest at some points in history. .. Crazy industry.

Quite a few of the FT BA board are, as there is a shareholders discount of 15% (IIRC) if one owns 200 shares by the registration date. Although BA haven't given dividends for a while, if booking personal travel, it can very quickly become worthwhile to own the shares :)

I bought CO stock post 9/11 and sold it a few months later at a profit. I currently own AS stock. Not a lot...but it's a company I like...

To be pedantic, it's only 10%, only off the base fare, only valid for leisure travel (though how that condition's enforced is anyone's guess), and only valid for ex-UK trips. You also have to be on the main UK register; US ADRs don't count, AFAIK. But it's valid for shareholder plus up to 5 (I think) other pax travelling with the shareholder.

So, as Jenbel rightly says, 200 shares could very quickly be worthwhile. At current share price levels, this would only be about £670. Anyone who does any significant leisure travel on BA could easily recoup the entire capital cost of 200 shares within a year or two.

Surely you are joking?

With 87,806+ registered users on FT, how could the answer be anything other than YES? :confused:

Thanks Globaliser, couldn't be bothered looking it up in the BA sticky :D

Only indirectly -- I have some money in an S&P 500 index, which includes Southwest.

I worked for US...the stock went went belly-up when they filed BK. I worked for DH...the stock which I bought at $10 a share closed yesterday at .028 per share. I work for Eagle now, and REFUSE to buy any AMR stock!

I guess this answer is better than KW's patented "Do a search" response...

But, if you had bought last year you would have doubled your money! (although I can't blame you at all for not wanting to risk your investment money on airline stocks - especially since you were burned twice already)

I bought BA stock years ago when I was in grad school and I wrote a paper about the european airline business. I had no idea that it was worth any sort of a discount... but then again I'm in the US.

Actually, it's neither patented nor copyrighted nor trademarked. ;)