If you are going east from Portland you no longer have a partner. In some instances you can fly thru Seattle, but that's only to the big cities. If you need a Providence or a Cleveland something outside of the big metro areas that Alaska does fly to then you need to look elsewhere. It's just not an option on Alaska, period.

So then I come back to the west coast and I need the Bay Area...who do I choose? Since I have already a bunch of United flights and and looking, I guess, to build United status, I might as well choose United to SFO as well. This is the thinking that starts destroying the Alaska brand. Now, United no longer flies non-stop to LA from Portland, but I wish they did. United also does Denver, which Alaska bailed out of from Portland several years ago.....so this is my dilemma. The Virgin America deal hosed us in Portland big time.

The lack of airlines out there is part of this - Delta, United, American...all three want to go it alone it seems. When we had six or seven major airlines someone wanted our business. Those days are gone....

We really can't partner with United because of the SFO hub thing, Delta already kicked Alaska to the curb, and then the American deal. Not sure what Jet Blue really gets for us.

Bottom line is we are hosed.