jinglish

Naturally I've experienced delays flying AS, including one even longer than the one on WN... but the current QX fiasco aside, AS has consistently been noted by FlightStats as the most punctual US carrier. And when delays do happen on a connection, I'll at least be stuck at a decent airport like PDX, SEA, or SFO T2, where I don't need to have PP to not be miserable and get more than thirty minutes of internet. WN has left me to twiddle my thumbs at... MDW and OAK. Yippee.

I've found that seatmates aren't much of a lottery for me. Even as an MVP I've only missed one upgrade in the last year, but when I do wind up in coach on AS I'm in 6A or 6F; when I've flown AA I've gotten free MCE at check-in; and on DL before the split I'd get a preferred seat and even the odd F upgrade. So if I even have an occupied middle seat next to me, I'm usually sitting with other elites who I'd think are at least slightly less likely to smell bad but, more importantly, are experienced travelers who know what they're doing--when we got to PDX at one in the morning, Mr. Needs Old Spice also spent a good twenty seconds fumbling with his belongings as if he hadn't noticed the ten rows ahead of him disembarking, trapping me in the window seat and holding up the aisle. And in this thread we've been listing all the reasons why WN is particularly appealing to the infrequent traveler! I suppose A-List status with WN could help since I could consistently grab a window seat at the front of the plane, but given my travel patterns and the fact that WN has no international partners, I'd never qualify.

And I do actually think that WN's C-listers are at least a bit more likely to be undesirable seatmates, simply because they're probably checking in at the airport instead of using OLCI. On an airline for which check-in time is so important, savvy non-elites are either checking in right at the cutoff or buying up to the A group. I've encountered kettles who don't even know you can skip airport check-in.