Airline industry spirals down again.
 

I've been seeing the articles regarding 3 small airlines that went belly up just last week. I was quite surprised after doing some industry readups there is yet another airline industry bust in the myths. Just seems these guys can't get it right.

I have my UAL points, about 120k and was considering using them up incase they bust and loose all my points similar to the ATA customers.

What are the thoughts regarding this on the forums? Anyone else considering the usage of points now that the problems are arising.

I was reading an article regarding AA that had the CEO talking about the near-term problems they are seeing creep up with high fuel and decrease in travel.

I'll take a stab at this. Some of the smaller airlines that fly all or mostly domestic probably won't make it. Most of the larger carriers have enough cash on the books to last through the year even if losses start to bloom, which certainly looks that way.

Carriers will begin to charge for even more services that were in the past free; checking bags, seat assignments, beverages, etc. You may even see free food on International go the way of BOB. The industry will probably also go into merger mania if CEO's egos don't get in the way and the DOJ allows all of the mergers to take place. Whether mergers will eliminate excess capacity, which is at the heart of the problem, remains questionable.

Don't think that you need to use all of your miles but not sure its a good idea to keep a half a million miles in your account (I've got about 300K trying to use) as the airlines may begin to raise mile redeemptions, restrict awards even more (particularly on the mile saver types of awards), or possibly begin to charge a fee for awards. Like other new charges that have gone through such as a second checked bag, airlines may exempt their elite levels.