Originally Posted by
sfozrhfco
JetBlue has been innovating. VX had been innovating but has been stagnating lately. AS has not been innovating and does not add anything that San Francisco doesn't have already. They will have their work cut out for them and they will not succeed if they think they can just keep things as they are and expect people to flock to them.
I very much agree. As much cachet as the Virgin brand may still have in the San Francisco market, it would not be enough for AS simply to adopt the VX F product -- unchanged since 2007, it's now last-in-class in transcons, except for AS F. And for Alaska to offer its current F product on SFO/LAX-JFK would be ridiculous.
AS is moving from a climate where hometown boosters, and the secondary markets it opens like CHS and OMA, are thrilled that it simply exists... to a climate where it's going to appear dowdy and backwards compared to the competition. And it has no hometown boosters in San Francisco, where the attitude ranges from indifference to hostility for taking VX away. The company's never been in this situation before.