Originally Posted by
sltlyamusd
AS runs the risk of losing existing premium traffic out of SEA to B6 and DL as they expand Mint and One service.
That's what, SEA-JFK/FLL/BOS? Or are you suggesting DL is going to put D1 on ALL their SEA routes? I find that a little hard to believe given that B6 isn't putting Mint on all their routes (and it would be a pretty massive expansion of D1, plus I'd think LAX would get more D1 routes than SEA would).
Given that AS didn't even start flying to JFK until a couple of years ago I find it hard to believe that JFK is a core market for them the same way it is for B6/DL. So AS is going to lose premium pax on a few East Coast markets. On the other hand, they don't have to run a 737/A321 subfleet with lie-flats (and make that investment in equipment/subfleet management)
Originally Posted by
sltlyamusd
If they want to stop the decline in RASM every earnings call, it seems like they are going to have to do something to attract higher yield traffic.
They have very consciously decided not to play in the California-NYC premium transcon game (which is probably the only one that counts, SEA/PDX/anywhere else-premium transcon isn't very important compared to that market). That could be a mistake. If they have to fix it, I would imagine it will happen soon enough.