Originally Posted by
fly18725
There appears to be a lack of understanding of what type of customers Alaska is targeting and what type of airline they want to be in the future. I’m not going to lay out what’s already been described, but premium travelers expecting a leading premium transcon product and most road warriors are not their target. If you’re not comfortable with this strategy, you shouldn’t be an investor or a customer.
Even after the AA partnership unraveled I argued that AS wasn't targeting the type of travelers (road warriors) that required an AA-scale network. But come on, this is getting ridiculous. They're not targeting road warriors, they're not targeting premium cabin customers, they're not targeting "Kayakers"...who are they targeting? "Leisure enthusiasts," which apparently is a much smaller group than they'd bargained on.
Seriously, why would anyone flying out of SF or LA choose AS unless they were the cheapest option? What is the value proposition there?
Management is coming to the same realization. On their own conference call they admitted that they don't understand why fares are so low in their CA markets and why they can't fill planes if they try to charge a premium. The "we're relevant on 70% of trips" line is nonsense. By "relevant" they just mean "you could fly us if you happened to be going there," but they give no reason why you'd pay a premium to fly them, especially since they would be entirely irrelevant for 30% of potential trips.