Originally Posted by
bennos
I just meant the premium service. DL couldn't make JFK-SEA D1 work with only 3 flights a day and no meaningful competition, and the BOS-SFO numbers are in the same ballpark (IIRC) as JFK-SEA.
If anything, this seems like the capacity dumping that the legacies used to do to prevent LCCs like B6 from gaining market share, just for premium seats now instead.
A few thoughts....
1) My understanding is that BOS-SFO sees something like 50% more pax than JFK-SEA does.
2) I think the discussion of "tech" as a driver of BOS-SFO is a bit misleading. Tech, as in IT companies, tend to be more parsimonious about travel than what might be classified as tech finance (e.g. VCs and private equity) and biotech (e.g. large molecule pharma companies). I mean, the biggest (IT) tech company in Boston does not allow J (or even W) travel, even if you are going to India, so I doubt DL is counting on them to be buying $2k+ J tickets to fly to SFO. SEA, not being a center for VCs and biotech like BOS or SFO, likely tracks the more frugal IT model.
3) Regarding UA, specifically, there is probably a fair amount of premium cabin traffic that is driven by connections to TPAC destinations, something JFK-SEA didn't have to a comparable degree.