Also no CRJ-200s, no change fees, no checked luggage fees, a simple to understand boarding system, and a very straightforward redemption system that doesn't require reading FT to understand the byzantine complexity of, plus decades of being well below the legacies in generating DOT complaints (which are a good first-order approximation of being able to resolve service failures).

WN gets slagged here for not providing people with access to Krug, caviar and lie-flat showers, but frankly, a lot of people don't need or desire them. I wouldn't send my mom to fly AA on a dare- she's not an inexperienced flier but wouldn't fly enough for elite status anywhere, and WN treats people coming in off the street better than anyone else. And honestly on a twoish hour flight or less I don't really care if the airline is serving me food I'd often send back at a Denny's, or even something on the edible side, and I AM an experienced flier. A coach seat at a price I can afford and with some flexibility if plans change is pretty useful to me, and for a lot of other people. If it wasn't WN would be bankrupt (something UA, DL and AA couldn't avoid), out of business, or maybe still flying 3 planes between 3 cities in Texas.

AA has it's place, but the reflexive WN hate here just shows me people don't get the model. Which is fine, WN flies 700 or so planes a day for people who DO get that model.