Originally Posted by
flyboy_421
The 500 mile minimum is essentially saying to the folks who commute through Continental (particularly IAH to DFW, AUS, SAT, etc) that you would be better off flying Southwest. I know that's unpopular but over the last 6 months I've had schedule dictate Southwest and Frontier on two separate occasions and found them to be far easier and more convenient. I stay on CO for the FF benefits, but those are dropping fast. I usually fly Y or H fares for everything but am not a particularly long haul flyer. If I flew international a lot CO would be straight out due to the upgrade policy.
I'm sure CO would be happy jettisoning most service to competitive markets (as it has with OAK, for example) and focusing on hub to high fare markets and hub to spoke city pairs where it has a monopoly.