It's clear that you had no intention of switching back to AS so why should you get special treatment? In this case, the airline is putting the interests of its loyal customers ahead of casual customers. I say, "Bravo Alaska!" ^

This policy is a lot better than what happened with the telephone companies in the late 90's. Remember the fierce competition between AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc. with big bonus cash for account switchers? I was a loyal AT&T customer because I loved the service and didn't want to play the games of changing my service every few months. As it turns out, for several years, I was paying a lot of extra bucks on the billing plan I had and AT&T failed to let me know about a cheaper plan that would have saved me big money (I was paying $3-4K annually on long-distance alone). I suppose its my own fault, but I got mad and switched.

Of course, AT&T offered me a big cash incentive and the cheaper plan to stay on, but I told them to keep it all. Why couldn't they have invested that money in keeping their loyal clients instead of throwing lots of cash at "disloyal" customers that would likely switch carriers once the incentives ran out?

I have been very pleased with AS customer care and plan to keep giving them my business as long as they keep taking care of my needs.