I should have noted that Southwest is not known for meeting its implementation schedules unless the project has top priority. The overhaul of Rapid Rewards was delayed repeatedly for a total of over 18 months. Upon rollout the software was effectively unusable for more than a week. It was a major embarrassment. I hope Southwest does better with this transition. If it goes smoothly I'll suspect that AirTran's software staff carried the load.
By the way, was it AirTran's staff who implemented the Rapid Rewards <-> A+ Rewards transfer web pages? That was the best web implementation of a new FF feature that I have ever seen. It was and is shockingly good.
NSX, I might caviot this with IT projects. They sure can build terminials quickly, and ahead of schedule. See HOU and DAL opening in a couple of months. In addition they can jump into cities quickly. Look how fast Denver is built up. Now carrying more passengers than UA.