Originally Posted by
jsguyrus
You know all this is not that hard to fix. First AS needs to have a sub-fleet of Hawaii and transcon aircraft that compete with Mint. Second, pull your head out and deal with the lack/quality of Lounges at key airports. Those two fixes would solve 80% of their current issues.
I don't think those solutions would get you what you want.
First, the list of Hawaii/transcon routes that will support a lie-flat premium to earn target ROIC on the aircraft space taken up, from traditional AS/VX hubs - is probably going to be pretty short. SFO-JFK? Sure. LAX-BOS? Probably. PDX-PHL? No way.
Second, their idea of key airports for lounges that will pay for themselves, and your idea, may be very different. Delta (to use one example), typically has a lounge at a domestic airport if it operates more than 40 daily DL + DL Connection flights. There are a few airports that despite low flight counts due to perceived premium fare bookings, like DCA. What airports, plus JFK, see 40 AS flights a day? Is that the lounge network you were expecting?