Originally Posted by
newsmanhoss
I'm doubting a code share will ever occur. At the rate the code share work is progressing, they could have most of the planes converted instead.
That is the $64,000 question. As for the bag fees, they already are competing against themselves with and without bag fees in markets like ATL-HOU and BOS-BWI. It's not a matter of legalities, just a matter of (potential) customer confusion or unhappiness.
Same is true if at some point AirTran-painted planes fly as Southwest or vice versa. No laws or regulations would be broken because the contract of carriage is between the passenger and the carrier selling the service. Doesn't matter who operates it. If the E190 is temporarily grounded and JetBlue contracts with Sun Country to pick up some of their flying for a time, it's not Sun Country's contract of carriage in effect --it's JetBlue's
The bigger issue is potential confusion and/or unhappiness with the customer base about fees versus no fees. It's very subjective to guess the amount of bad will Southwest is building based on hammering away at the evil of various fees charged by other airlines, while still charging those same fares at a large subsidiary. Early on it probably wasn't as big a deal, as "nothing will change right away" makes sense. But as more and more time passes, and as Southwest increasingly intermixes with AirTran, the fees charged by AirTran are likely to be increasingly glaring.