Originally Posted by
ashill
Interesting and heartening in my view, though I recognize that AS can still go revenue based whenever they want. And a classic FlyerTalk question from the analyst, more or less explicitly “revenue-based works better for me; do you know who I am, a high-vale customer? Given that I win with revenue based, it must be best for the airline!”
And then a pretty effective takedown of that argument by the AS execs: “OK, but there’s a significant customer base that is not like you, and we’re the only ones left with a frequent flyer program that caters to that customer base, and they get our credit card and then go to alaskaair.com without even looking at the competition, which is good for us.”
Be the best that Alaska air can be for its limited route map and engender loyalty for the long run. Doing what delta does and not having the more extensive route map would then really make Alaska a less attractive alternative particularly without the Asian, European, and South American routes. I suspect that revenue based system is really good for personal or business travel based on a few over seas trip annually.
I certainly hope Alaska doesn’t cede the differentiator that it has compared to Delta now that Delta is a viable competitor in Seattle.