Bad news for Flying J fans

**OntarioVanMan** · 07-20-2009, 08:59 AM

Why would Pilot change anything?
Except the restaurants, get rid of liabilities (employees) different deals with Dennys-Perkins-Applebys...all 3 are in need of a partnership.

The J made 18 BILLION just in the TS side of the biz...they did not go under cause they weren't making money...they could not get over past debt..

**mjolnir131** · 07-20-2009, 09:35 AM

pilot already has a denny's partnership i imagine that is hwat most of thefull service places will end up being

**OntarioVanMan** · 07-20-2009, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by mjolnir131

pilot already has a denny's partnership i imagine that is hwat most of thefull service places will end up being

You are with E-1 now?

Yeah and good ridance to those crappy buffets....Rather have the Grand Slam any day!!

**greg334** · 07-20-2009, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by OntarioVanMan

Rather have the Grand Slam any day!!

It don't matter what is in the place, the people making the food matter and if they are playing hockey with the frozen steaks or sneezing in the soup, it will be the same cr*p.

The only good thing I see coming out of all of this is if Pilot uses their head is the change over from the flying J card to the pilot card (with of course transitioning the points over form FJs card to the pilot card). If they take advantage of this, and only this, then they can actually make money using the flying J brand.

**piper1** · 07-20-2009, 09:50 AM

Greg, what kind of financial shape is Pilot in after taking on the J's debt? What kind of things do you think they might be able to do?

**OntarioVanMan** · 07-20-2009, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by greg334

It don't matter what is in the place, the people making the food matter and if they are playing hockey with the frozen steaks or sneezing in the soup, it will be the same cr*p.

The only good thing I see coming out of all of this is if Pilot uses their head is the change over from the flying J card to the pilot card (with of course transitioning the points over form FJs card to the pilot card). If they take advantage of this, and only this, then they can actually make money using the flying J brand.

Some of the J's reward cards are connected to their banking card as well.....so they will have to split off at least my card....since Pilot isn't getting the banking end...From MY view point looks like my showers will be history....

**greg334** · 07-20-2009, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by piper1

Greg, what kind of financial shape is Pilot in after taking on the J's debt? What kind of things do you think they might be able to do?

Honestly, I don't know. It appears to me that this was a fire sale of sorts and Pilot may seek expansion without a large capital investment in assets and more importantly time. Like when we had the great drug store buyouts of the early 90's, the mom and pop and even a lot of the regional chains were gobbled up by CVS, Riteaide and others to create the drug store on every corner problem.

If they are smart, combining the back end would be the prudent thing to do, like the reward cards and some of the services. The front of house stuff, like the food, leave that alone for now. There is a following of the brand and even locations that can be leveraged into getting more people to cross over when needed from one brand to another (like if you were out in the boonies and there was only a pilot, you fuel up there instead of risking running out of fuel trying to get to a J).

But what do I know? I am waiting for T/A to get their act together with their Petro buyout.

God am i bored this morning.....

**inkasnana** · 07-20-2009, 11:21 PM

I hope they will change it so we can use the Fleet One card for fuel at the J's. That's the main reason we don't stop at J very often.

**Jack_Berry** · 07-22-2009, 08:25 PM

so i was in a pilot yesterday. in the fj wifi brochure they list places you can get fj wifi. not this place. it was slow, could not handle graphic pages seen here and was faster in mail than the net. maybe there were some game players monopolizing bandwidth but pilot should use the fj network. also the hard wire plug was white and not blue like the one i am plugged into right now at the j.