A reader that I regularly correspond with shared notes from his 45 minute conversation with a senior Alaska Airlines executive (senior enough to be appointed by the board). This reader is a San Francisco-based regular Virgin America customer unhappy with the product changes.

Alaska has several Airbus narrowbody planes on order (‘neos’). And this executive says that Alaska intends to take possession of several of them “and use them to compete with Mint, DeltaOne, etc. on transcontinental flights between [Los Angeles and San Francisco] to East Coast destinations like New York and elsewhere.”

The seats aren’t yet selected, but this executive “assured it’s not a question of ‘if’ but rather of ‘when.'”