Certainly! ^ And I am VERY GLAD WN is one of the choices!

Agreed.

1) A premium cabin's worth to you over economy is what you would have paid $$ for it above economy, not a price tag airlines charge that you would never pay. Some FTers make the mistake of valuing a business class ticket they redeemed miles for at $7,000 because that is what the airline charges instead of the real value to them. If they would have paid $2500 for that ticket and no more, then $2500 is what their miles were worth on that redemption.

2) Alliances are a wonderful thing. Legacy flyers can redeem our UA/AA/DL miles for SQ, EK, BA, CX, and NH flights - no need to slum "it in UA or AA". (BTW - HA F is not nearly as nice as the five I mention).

3) "There are quite a few of us who see no need to fly F"
I am one of those people.
However, I think you would have a hard time finding someone who would not choose an F ticket instead a Y ticket if the price difference were $.01
ALL of us would rather fly F than Y as a rule, I am sure there are rare exceptions.
Different people value F over Y by different amounts.
Domestically, I value F over Y by about 25% (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending).
So I would be willing to pay $250 instead of $200 average per ticket if $200 meant AA Y class and $250 meant AA F class.
That means I am getting about $50 of value back from each RT AA upgrades me on domestically.

For the record: There are large categories of business travellers for whom WN is the best airline choice.

I would also say that the majority of these travellers would receive much more value if WN had a FF program like AA/UA.
WN is right for them even though Rapid Rewards is not the best for them.
(I am a FF program expert; less of an airline expert. Sometimes I allow my focus on the FF programs to cloud my view of the bigger picture.)

Why do I think the average very frequent flyer would receive significantly more from AAdvantage or Mileage Plus over Rapid Rewards:

Lets say our hypothetical very frequent flyer does 50 RTs per year and only flys domestically for work.

With Rapid Rewards, the flyer will earn A list and Companion Pass:
- Priority check-in and security and boarding
- First chance at a good coach seat (board first)
- 6-9 Rapid Rewards RTs (depending on promotions)
- Companion Pass: Can take someone with for a year
- Am I missing anything major? Please let me know!

With AAdvantage, the flyer will earn AA Executive Platinum:
- Priority check-in and security, boarding, standby, and irregular ops accommodation
- First chance at a good coach seat (select seat online when purchasing - best seats only selectable by elites)
- 100,000-400,000 AA miles, depending on length of flights and promos
- Domestic: Pays for economy and is upgraded to F 90% of the time
- Gets 8 SWU (international advance confirmable upgrades)
- AA EXP phone reps: talk to a knowledgeable empowered skilled AA rep 24-7, talk directly to human with no hold time (usually)
- 1/2 price annual lounge membership, improving ability to work before/between flights
- (Oneworld benefits like free lounge access, IF this person decides to do any international)

The below valuations are by necessity subjective. I am trying to be as fair as possible; to get the most applicable answer, each person needs to honestly assign their own personal value to each item.

Value of WN benies:
Priority check-in and security and boarding - $200, or $2 per one-way
First chance at a good coach seat (board first) - $200, or $2 per one-way
8 Rapid Rewards RT free tickets - $2400, or $150 per one-way
Companion Pass - $800
Total: $3,600

Value of AA benies:- Priority check-in and security, boarding, standby, and irregular ops accommodation - $300, or $3 per one-way
- First chance at a good coach seat (select seat online when purchasing - best seats only selectable by elites) - $200, or $2 per one-way
- 200,000 AA miles, depending on length of flights and promos - $3,000
(1.5 cents per AA mile means an AAdvantage date restricted coach ticket to Hawaii is worth $525 to you, and an AAdvantage issued Cathay Pacific date restricted business class ticket to Asia is worth $1,650 to you; I personally get more than that from my miles)
- Domestic: Pays for economy and is upgraded to F 90% of the time - $2,250, or $25 per one-way - certainly highly subjective but most everyone values an upgrade more than $.01 so what is it for you?
- Gets 8 SWU (international advance confirmable upgrades) - $2,400
8 x $300, value based on what I see them trade for on CC on average
- AA EXP phone reps: talk to a knowledgeable empowered skilled AA rep 24-7, talk directly to human with no hold time (usually) - I will assume I missed something of similar value from Rapid Rewards
- 1/2 price annual lounge membership, improving ability to work before/between flights - I will assume I missed something of similar value from Rapid Rewards
Total: $8,150

Based on the above math, the same flyer either gets $8,150 from AAdvantage or $3600 from Rapid Rewards.

I would be very curious what personal valuations apply to other posters in this thread - I would love to see your math.