A few random thoughts... I'm not a WN homer by any stretch, but to interject a few facts...

- WN has operated 737-700's for almost ten years now. Multiple connections are not required for transcons. Most of them require one stop. Because of this, we see a lot of the -700's at MCI and get a lot of nonstops to the West Coast from WN. When I fly with family, I love these flights. When I fly alone, I take UA through DEN and benefit from the WN fare effect.

- WN actively caters to both infrequent and frequent fliers. In the past couple of years they've been trying to fine-tune this balance and create more benefits for frequent fliers. (Again, I'd love to see their A-List customers' rating against the UA 2P ratings and the Companion Pass holders vs. the 1K's. ) The catch, of course, is that they only operate in one market.

- WN hasn't taken a "lowest common denominator" approach. In fact, they've done the opposite and bucked the legacy race to the LCD. It would have been easy to join the herd on ticket change fees, baggage fees, fuel surcharges, abysmal phone support, etc. They made a business decision not to. In fact, the total changeability of all WN fares is a perk that primarily benefits business travelers likely to need to change plans at the last minute.


Side question (non-WN-related): Grace, you say UA's coach product to SYD is abysmal. While I don't disagree, is there anything that leads you to believe that DL is going to have something better than UA E+? I don't fly DL so I don't know... I believe that would be DL's longest flight (?), so are they going to outfit the aircraft they use for it with something better than their regular coach product? AFAIK, DL coach is typically 32"-ish...