<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by westcoastman:
I did not realize that they would be limiting the $70 fares to just a few dozen per flight.
I think it is a bad example to select Wed to Wed since of course AS will be cheaper. I need to leave Friday afternoon so I can see my family for the longest amount of time. On the return On Sunday night there should not be any business travelers. An example I was pricing Fri June 21 to Vegas and return June 23 and was getting over $400 - United Airlines = $182.50.
Seattle to Orange County Airport June 7/June 9 AS = $349. United has $200 for LAX with great times. Not sure of your job but you probably have the flexability to fly on Weds morning but two hours on Friday can mean a big difference to my family and it is coming out of my pocket and I do not make a lot of money. When work does pay for it I get put on National ($238 everyday to LAX through April 30) or United because they are cheaper by more than $50. I want to fly AS but the new AS formula has drivin up certain days/times of the day even though the flight is very open according to ITN.</font>
I checked AS on 6/7 and return 6/9 SEA-LAX and they offer a 200.50 round trip - same as UA. If you are going to compare AS to UA then compare apples to apples. You can't price SNA on AS and LAX on UA and then complain about AS being outpriced by UA. Price SNA on UA and see what they have to offer you.
My point is that AS is competitive at the very least. In many cases they are less expensive than the competition. Try booking a last minute SFO-IAD on UA and price it on AS. You go on like AS is always outpriced by the competition but more often than not, AS is at least competitive if not cheaper than the competition. Incidentally, I found AS as low as 233.00 SEA-SNA on the dates you were looking for - I assume that you are probably looking for an evening departure from SEA and a later departure from SNA and that priced out at 278.50. I don't know where you are getting your figures from - I went directly to the Alaskaair.com website - the best source for AS airfares.
Also, I don't know that AS is limiting the 70.00 employee seats to a few dozen on each flight - but it will be limited and if I had to guess I would say they most likely will be limiting the number of seats available to just 5-10 seats and none on prime time flights. So it's not the sweet deal you imagined it was.
If you're claiming that your company puts you on National then I'm not sure how they are doing that. National doesn't start service to SEA until 5/23.
[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 05-03-2002).]