BillyBaloney

This time it was DEN-PHX, absolutely no "biz" class. They attempted to sell people the boarding slot for $40 ("you get to board first") but no takers.

Biz class pricing without biz class seats! An outstanding concept!

lougord99

Which is heavily used on most of my flights.

Obviously, there will also be many flights without many BS passengers.

I guess you would simply call the people in Chicago stupid.

BillyBaloney

So if it works in only some areas of the country (and I'm not saying that it does), why make it nationwide policy? It is obviously a waste of money and time for most routes. I've flown many other routes and biz class is always empty.

Wingrider

I flew an AUS->SJC flight one morning and was the only BS pax and a ton of folks starting @ A-16. Flew BUR->SJC today and (like other days) BS was a full house all 15 of us.

SDCA

"Biz class" is ALWAYS empty on Southwest.

lougord99

Interesting.

Nevada1K

Anytime they sell a Business Select ticket, or a $40 "upgrade" at the gate, that is pure bonus money right to WN's bottom line. If that helps maintain lower cost WGA fares, I'm all for it -- although you won't see me voluntarily spending the extra bucks. And I will certainly give credence to the argument it has no impact on keeping WGA fares low, as we've all observed the increases in fares the past year. However, one could also argue that without the incremental BS/upgrade revenue, WGA fares might even be higher.

As SDCA noted, there is no biz class on WN; it is merely allowing the purchaser to be one of the first 15 to board the plane (after any blue sleeve pax).

ElmhurstNick

[ToS deletion] OP has made it clear in many previous posts that he will miss his AirTran flights and that by definition anything that WN does that is not keeping AirTran is by definition garbage.

Business Select has its uses, even and perhaps especially for an A-List Preferred who would be flying on an AnyTime fare already. It takes $7000 of AT fares to requalify, vs. $5833 of BizSelect fares. At an average of $250/segment, that means it's 5 less segments to requalify (23 vs. 28). And those $250 segment fares are typically no longer than 100 minutes in the air.

It is not for everybody, and there is nobody forcing anybody to purchase it. Certainly WN has done a lot of really stupid things in the last couple of years. But not adopting AirTran's business model is not one of them.

flyventure

Have many taken advantage of the AirTran business class? I see a place for both a Business Select product and the AirTran Business Class product. Flew business select a few weeks back, one flight was on Airtran, and really enjoyed the business class amenities. Granted they aren't equal to domestic first class in most cases, but it is pretty good nonetheless. Personally I would find it a nice perk for those that pay a significant premium for their ticket of those on WGA.

Granted for WN, the WGA'ers buying the $40 gate upgrade is pure profit. They get to avoid the same ticket taxes on those $40 ancillary fees.

jamesteroh

I like FL's business class. When they had TOL/ATL on DC-9's a long time ago, I would buy coach on that route and could easilly justify the gate upgrade charge on my expense report.

Last December, I had some RR 1 credits to burn and only the freedom award was available on WN, and it was the same number of credits to fly business class on FL as the freedom award on WN for DTW/LAX connecting in ATL.

I get upgraded frequently flying Delta DTW/ATL and with the exception of the jacket service (plenty of room in the bin for my jacket) I like the service as well on Delta birds that don't have IFE in them. There was a PDB service, snack items were great and they were good with the beverage service on all four legs.

The only things I missed were the meal service on the LAX/ATL return flight since it was a meal time flight and the IFE on the ATL/LAX (and not all planes have that anyway).

I can certainly understand why the ATL Airtran flyers with status that got upgraded freqeuntly on FL or for a $50 upgrade are going to miss Airtran.

Often1

Apples and oranges. J on FL has nothing to do with what amounts to do with what amounts to priority boarding and a drink on WN. The fact that marketing cookies use the word "Business" in both products doesn't mean that they are remotely comparable.

WN made a business decision to offer one-class kettle without seat assignments. I hate it, but there are apparently those who will suffer it and do. Why argue?

tusphotog

Welcome back. We've missed you here.

lougord99

Actually, there are many of us ( I almost wrote most, but I have no way to back that up ) who are quite satisfied with the WN system compared to our experiences on the legacies.

rsteinmetz70112

And some of us believe that the Airtran product was and is superior to either.

ElmhurstNick

WN has its place for two niches: a) small business travelers who specialize in mid-sized cities and last minute purchases but not enough to fly 50k EQM/year on a single legacy, and b) leisure travelers who travel 2-3 times a year but never really earn enough to redeem an aspirational award on a legacy, much less earn status.

Niche A trades mid-tier status and the occasional trip to Europe, Asia, or Hawaii for avoiding 50-seaters, having 99% availability of their preferred seat (for me, 17D), very high point earning towards domestic travel, and the ability to reuse cancelled WGA ticket funds within a year. Niche B gets two free checked bags, which makes their vacation a little more stress free, and a trip every three years or so thanks to the points, without capacity controls.

From what can be inferred from your posts, I think it's fair to assume that you don't really fit either niche, in which case you'd be insane to fly Southwest frequently.