Elite doesn’t necessarily mean 1K/GS.. it’s probably silver+, so the majority of pax in SNA could be silver.
Perhaps it’s number of elites compared to total number of passengers flying through the airport. SFO/ORD might have more elites, but they’re also hubs so get more non-elites flying through them.
I fly SNA-SFO often (bizarrely, SNA-SFO->Asia is cheaper than LAX-Asia). The morning flight (e.g. UA209) I'm pretty sure over half the plane boards in Group 1 most of the time, even on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. I'm in Group 2, and it seems relatively sparse compared to Group 1 and Group 4, so I doubt it's silvers.
Originally Posted by
Kacee
SFO-SNA is not that hard at all, which is one of the reasons I don't believe for a minute that SNA has an unusually high number of UA elites. Nothing like ORD. Heck, I've had a harder time upgrading SFO-PHX.
SNA-SFO morning flights are probably pretty tough, judging from what I see in the gate area. SFO-SNA might be easier? I've also flown daytime mainline flights recently which are rarely full (maybe 60-70% load?) so I'd be willing to bet those are easier to clear with high status. The upgrade list the last SFO-SNA I've flown was maybe 20 or so names, and top six cleared?
Originally Posted by
tarheelnj
Also keep in mind limited FC seating. UA only seems to fly the 737-700W (with the weird E- seating ahead of the emergency exit rows) and the 737-800SFP.
I've definitely flown A320s into SNA. I've never sat upfront before though, so I can't comment on the FC seating.
Originally Posted by
laxmillenial
I doubt it's anywhere near the top as well. I think more like it that SNA is home to a much more affluent community surrounding it (both home equity as well as businesses), and therefore, they spend more on airfares than the normal person. This leads to higher fares, more buy-ups, more business class tickets.
Unforunately (fortunately?) this leads to much more staunch travel plans and imo one of the easiest places to get VDB'd if you're flying SNA->SFO at the right time :P
Yeah I'd guess this as well. People living in Irvine seem disproportionately wealthy enough to just pay for first class, and given how cheap JetBlue is, if I lived west of SNA (e.g. Fountain Valley), I'd opt to fly out of LGB. I can't speak much for business travel though. I'm not sure which local businesses would pay for domestic first over economy.