Originally Posted by
jsguyrus
Wow is everyone a bit grumpy today? This has been discussed ad nauseam here before. AS is not going to compete with a lie flat, period. What it will compete with is AA/DL/UA domestic first product, even though it doesn't have a pillow or a PDB.
And please....VX is gone, it wasn't sustainable, so lets not use it as the model.
Just because they got bought does not mean that they were not sustainable. Had they not been bought they probably would have survived.
They had some things that they needed to fix. For one thing, they did not use differential pricing so F did not rise in price with Y. Having F cheaper than Y was not too uncommon, and having it be only a very small premium was quite common. Also their upgrades were just too cheap. They needed to raise the price. It was often too easy to get the first class product without paying what it was worth, as a premium over economy.
F was often full or mostly full; they were probably not extracting enough revenue from it. Cost cutting / product destruction is not the only way to increase profits.
Also, "domestic" includes transcon and hawaii, so, no, they are not competing with AA/UA/DL in terms of domestic F product. They aren't competing on the "economy plus" side either; my transcon on AA in E+ was much better quality product than AS premium ("snack" on AA = BOB meal on AS and the seat was more comfortable). And on UA my domestic F flights have featured a blanket and a full-bar PDB.
If AS is competing, they are losing, at least in terms of quality of product and service (not to mention network). They win in terms of FFP and consistent friendliness of staff (not to be confused with service). FFP has significant, real value of course. Friendliness of staff is important too, but I'll take a surly "yes" over a friendly "no" when I request a scotch before takeoff (and actually most FAs with other airlines are just as friendly; there are unfortunately some exceptions)