Originally Posted by
jeffandnicole
In the Southwest/AirTran merge, either airline could've been the legacy.
Wrong. Southwest bought much smaller AirTran to bulk up, not end its run. They could have killed FL change fees, seat selection fees, bag fees and yanked out J seats, but chose to bank 3 1/2 years of ancillary revenues.
There were never notions of a business class, repainting WN livery or FL as a stand-alone subsidiary. And no factual basis to argue assigned seating was ever eyed as an heirloom.