Originally Posted by
pinniped
+ As for premium cabins, if you'd asked me 2 years ago I would have said they are 100% firm on their overall business strategy of a single cabin and will never operate any kind of F/J product. Obviously I was wrong on that...but I don't think the existing WN (as opposed to formerly AirTran) planes need a premium cabin. I liked the old simplicity model...I'm just flying an hour, get me there fast...and I'm afraid they're already making it more complicated than their systems can actually handle.
How are your wrong on that? From Southwest's website:
There will be no changes to the Customer Experience right away. Southwest does not assign seats. AirTran offers assigned seats. Southwest has one class of service and AirTran offers two classes of seating. Upon full integration, it is our intent to have a consistent product offering with open seating and a single class of service.
I don't know how long it will take to remove the first class section and add extra seats. My guess is not much longer then the time it will take to repaint the planes and do whatever else is necessary to convert the plane from Airtran to a Southwest look.
I wouldn't say you're wrong if WN runs a F/J product for the short time it takes to change over the planes.