Rant of the day for me:

Unfortunately, I find myself "leaving" AS' fares quite often. Some of the recent "restricted discount" fares are approaching WN's fully refundable and changable fares. A fully flexible ticket on a 737 beats a time restricted ticket on a CRJ any day.

And, what's the deal with SFO-PSP these days? I can't seem to get anything less than $450 that leaves Friday evening and returns Sunday afternoon/evening. AS' lowest fare on this route is currently slightly more than WN's fully refundable OAK-ONT. And even then, AS forces you to leave early Friday morning and return at 7 am on Sunday or, for a little more, 9 am. Who wants to take a 7 am flight on Sunday? Really, I don't even know why they schedule this stuff. I love the AS service and I'm willing to pay a bit more for it, but this unpredictable yield management is making me crazy.

Also, the fact that you can't buy the cheapest fares until close to the time of travel makes me nuts. The European LCC's really have this one figured out. If you are only willing to sell two tickets during August in the lowest fare category, allow people to buy them when you publish your schedule. You have a willing buyer NOW and, well, a bird in the hand... Don't make people wait until yield management panics and releases a bunch of seats after your loyal passengers have already bought tickets on other airlines. If I knew that AS would give me the best deal for buying now, I'd have tons of travel booked for the year. Unfortunately, I know there will be random sales later that will only be available online (read: no voucher for the fare difference) so I wait.... and wait.... and end up flying AS only half the time.