Originally Posted by
newyorkgeorge
The spread has certainly seem to have gotten large over time. It used to be maybe $50. I'm seeing differences on domestic routes of $200 or more. The bottom line AA isn't going to fly you to HNL (or whatever other HI market WN enters) for $149 OW and give you main cabin. Most of those tickets on WN will be limited and require advance purchase and flying on slower days of Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Also bear in mind that flights to and from Hawaii have a much greater amount of passengers who are leisure passengers than other routes. On other routes passengers traveling for business will be more likely to have BE blocked out in their corporate booking tools allowing for a greater spread. Your typical non-status passenger flying for leisure has an upper limit at which they would be willing to pay for a seat assignment only.