Originally Posted by
osubeavers01
I think the Alaska model is highly appealing to business travelers such as myself. I fly transcons 1-2x/month plus many shorter flights (last year, had already requalified for Gold75 by summer). At my company, we're not allowed to purchase first class travel. Most of my flights aren't booked until the week before, or often only days before my travel, so I would guess the last min pricing of my coach fares is not that different from first class pricing ($$$). I choose Alaska for most of my business travel due to the generous upgrade policies and most of my personal travel with them due to the lack of change fees for gold75. I would guess there are a number of frequent travelers who fit into the same category as me and I don't think this is an unreasonable segment for Alaska to target
+1 for me. I am the same type of business traveler. Most of my travel is business related with a company that will not pay for first on domestic travel. Is Alaska's First product better or even on par with their competition? Nope.... But I will take F upgrades on Alaska any day over coach on other airlines. So it looks like I am one of the few hoping to keep the AS F product that way it is as long as the upgrades keep coming. I regularly purchase expensive last minute tickets, so I assume AS targeting me is paying off for them.