After speaking to customer service and being told I have to pay to change my companion's ticket (within 24 hours, but I already made a change) and the agent being completely unsympathetic and going just by the book, what is the point of flying Alaska? I'm MVP Gold, and I know those are the rules, but sometimes agents try to help you out ...

That is, in the old days.

In looking at other threads about people whining about Alaska it seems the only point in flying Alaska is their mile-based earnings, compared to other airlines' revenue-based. Are there are other benefits? If I just took the money I saved on booking Alaska flights (cause they usually cost more), took advantage of the flexibility of not flying AS (which has a horrible route network once you get out of the West Coast), gave up the game of trying to get upgrades (their first class isn't that great anyway), would I come out ahead?