Originally Posted by bernardd

I know that for work I want, and will pay for, different things than for leisure. Put simply early morning / late evening departures with impecable time keeping are important. I want to get on the plane in the morning, be offered some kind of breakfast that will keep be going until midday, have power for my PC, space to work and get any checked luggage delivered fast when I arrive. Returning I'm looking for a decent hot meal, a glass of wine and a generally more relaxing trip. But overall I want to arrive ready & refreshed for work and I'm willing to pay quite a premium over typical leisure trips.

For leisure I'm generally more willing to put up with some inconvenience to save money, and I prefer not to have to rush around to make 6 or 7am departures.

Now tell me how CO's coach fits those outlines? How do it's 31" cattle crates deliver me fresh and ready for work? OK, so they have a limited number of First class seats, but the premium on most carriers for a trip like AUS-SJC is far too high to justify. IMO what CO should have done is to offer about 1/3rd of their domestic services as a Business Class with (say) 34" seating, possibly 5 wide, and a real "professional" product. Maybe they should have looked at BA's concept of convertible seating and tried to make something that actually worked.

Then they should have mirrored this with a Premium Economy on long haul.

Then they have the chance to sell up everyone to another class, while offering a differentiated product the "delivers you ready to do business" - a totally different product for which Southwest isn't setting the price. If they got it right it would be aspirational - something you would be telling your neighbours and co-workers "I always fly Continental on business".

Instead of which CO are they're mired in a one size fits all race to the bottom, where the only differentiation they have to offer is flexibility, which they proceed to undermine with same day changes etc. And to add to it all, they undermined the domestic First class by giving it away.