>> In what could be the most shocking news of the decade, Merrick Garland and
the justice department has decided to actually do something.
They've sued to block JetBlue's acquisition pending acquisition
of Spirit Airlines, which the DOJ rightly argues could be anti-competitive.
So the DOJ released a statement yesterday explaining their reasoning,
they state that the merger violates something known as the Clayton Act,
one of the United States's main pieces of antitrust legislation.
And the DOJ also argues this, that the deal would eliminate half
of ultra low cost airline capacity in the United States.
Remember, Spirit Airlines does offer a torturous, yet
affordable option for flyers.
And I say torturous, because they just make it miserable to fly.
The seats are smaller, you've got no room.
You have to pay extra for things that you typically wouldn't pay extra for,
that kind of stuff.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's still a more affordable option,
it's important to have that competition within the market.
>> Really fast, would they be shutting it down and just using its capacity?
I thought that they would just be taking over it,
maybe rebranding as a JetBlue value or something.
>> No, they would take over and it kind of how-
>> Necessarily the prices would go up.
>> Yeah.
>> Because there'd be less competition.
>> Alaska Airlines, for instance, bought Virgin-
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> Which was disastrous.
>> I got it, heated that.
Yeah, it was disastrous.
So when you don't have multiple companies operating
the same routes and all that stuff- >> Yeah.
>> Then the companies that have a larger market share gets, yeah, up their prices.
So Spirit Airlines as many of you probably know has built
its business model around offering lower prices.
And so the DOJ is arguing that it's important to maintain that.
Spirit has already doubled its network size in the last ten years and
it's still growing.
The merger would nip that competition in the bud.
Also, there are 40 direct routes where Spirit and
JetBlue dominate so much of the air travel that the deal would give
the merged company too great of a market share.
These are all great points, these are all accurate points.
I want more of this, more of this.
If you're not going to charge someone like Donald Trump or any of his cronies for
the criminality that they engaged in, I'm willing to forgive you for
that if you actually look out for consumers.
I mean, I know I hear you, but do something of substance, please.
I'm begging you.
>> Well, it apply this to tech companies, in telecom companies and
all of that where in many cases, they've allowed major mergers to go through in
the in the past ten years or so.
>> That's right.
>> Yeah. >> That's right.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah, well, look, I'm glad, especially because flight is already so
fraught in a million different ways even if you can get a ticket you can get on.
It's so expensive, it's insanely expensive.
I'm taking a trip in the next week and
it's at least 50% more than it would have been just five years ago.
>> I'm taking a trip ticket tonight.
>> Just that's cheaper, I guess.
>> $20 for a pack of edibles.
>> I don't think people regulates that or trains.
Anyway, from the point of view of JetBlue, obviously,
I think that the official messaging has to be that this is bad.
>> Of course, no.
But I do think that there's a silver lining.
When they're thinking about what sort of acquisitions to make,
you do your due diligence and all that and
you take a look at somebody like Spirit and you think, well, we're way bigger.
It's not that expensive.
But then you find out that if you want a second copy of the contract,
you have to pay more and
they're not gonna let you use your own pen, you gotta buy a pen from them.
And it's just a nickel and dime you on the deal, and
it's just not worth it in the end.
They'll paint half of the plane, the JetBlue colors, but
then you have to supply the paint for the other half.
>> So- >> It just doesn't add up.
>> Don't give them ideas.
So Jet Blue, by the way is planning on appealing this.
They're fighting back.
They believe that no, this merger acquiring Spirit
is actually gonna be a big win for the consumer.
>> Yeah. >> It might actually lead to lower prices.
My God.
[CROSSTALK] >> Don't insult our intelligence, okay?
When you don't have competition, that means you get to charge higher prices cuz
you don't have to worry about competing with someone who's offering lower prices.
We all know how this works, we're not stupid.
>> Everything with flying is a scam.
>> Yes. >> So
we all know that like flying on Spirit isn't great.
I don't have a lot money, so I have flown a lot on Spirit in the last few years and
they do nickel and dime me on everything.
The thing about flying on Spirit that blew me away,
though is you expect that you're not gonna have a lot of room.
And for someone like me,
that means that my knees are gonna be against hard plastic the whole time.
You expect that you're gonna be on a super uncomfortable chair, but
you also expect that there's gonna be a tray table and
in place of like a normal cafeteria tray, basically is what it is.
They had this little jagged piece of metal that
was this big, it was made of metal.
It had to cost more than a plastic tray table.
I think it was there to spit in your face, so
you can't even fit a diet Coke can on here and it's metal.
So if there's a crash, you're just gonna be cut right in half by it.
It was an intentional insult and then really fast, I was supposed to fly for
the holidays and it was crazy flying to the east, all that stuff,
people like Buttigieg and everything.
So they gave us a $350 voucher to replace the flight that we lost or whatever.
So I need to take this flight, I found a flight $655.
And I was like, good.
Well, once you take away the $350 and it's not that bad.
So I called them up and it turns out.
Expedia who gave us the thing.
>> No. >> They don't use.
>> No.
>> You know where I got that $655 price?
From expedia.com, you know who doesn't use expedia.com?
Expedia, so I called them up and talk to them.
They have their own in internal price, which what do you know is way more
expensive than their publicly available price.
But don't worry, you get the $350 off.
Well, sorry, you get a $99 fine for using it.
>> My God. >> But then you get the $350 off.
So in the end, rather than the $655,
do you know how much they were gonna book that flight for?
>> How much?
>> $637, $18 cheaper.
>> My God.
>> You didn't even do it.
>> Good news is Pete Buttigieg is on it.
>> He's on it just like the trains.
He's regulating everything, except he's not.
>> It just scam every bit of it, nationalized the airlines honestly.
>> That's super infuriating.
By the way, just big tip for all you travelers out there.
I actually like those websites to book hotels because sometimes you can find
a promo code or coupon code and like the price of the hotel,
you get a little lower, right?
A little sweet, pretty sweet.
Don't book your flights through Orbitz, Expedia, what a Priceline.
Just don't do it, go directly to the website for
the airline that you wanna book.
>> Well, in this case, I was using Expedia cuz that's what the voucher was for.
So I had- >> No, I know, but
the initial flight that you booked.
>> I don't know.
>> Yeah, that's so infuriating.
I would lose my mind over that.
>> It's crazy.
>> It is crazy and it's awful and what it highlights for people who are in the know
about how our system really works is that our elected lawmakers let it happen,
because they're paid to let it happen.
>> Yeah.
>> It's so infuriating.