Originally Posted by
VegasGambler
Being a regional carrier has nothing to do with quality.
On the contrary, I would argue it has
everything to do with why AS decided to junk the pmVX F product (because frankly your complaints are more about the pm VX F product being axed, not some vague "quality" problem). Not enough people are willing to pay for a VX-style product for 60-180 minute flights compared to having more Y seats/a denser F product (in effect: more Y seats that are upgradeable to F), and that is the meat and potatoes of the AS route network, even after the merger (NYC is more important for pmVX ex-CA than it is for pmAS, but it's still not ZOMG MOST IMPORTANT MARKET EVER in the merged network).
WN and B6 having great success
without ANY F product (before Mint), as well as AS doing just fine with their F product very clearly illustrate that premium F isn't some magical profit inducing unicorn and nobody gives a damn about Y or running a good operation. AA/UA/DL aren't run by idiots who don't pay attention to their markets, and if VX F fleetwide/routewide was some kind of amazeballs "we attract a revenue premium" product for any stage length you'd have RJs with lie-flats.
You can be as grumpy as you want to be about losing pmVX F. I flew it too, well before the merger (though I never paid full price for a ticket because it was on regional routes for $50/$100 gate upgrades, which should be your clue that maybe it wasn't running real revenue premiums
). But AS has the financials and decided they weren't going to keep flying it everywhere (note that B6 doesn't fly Mint everywhere, and NOBODY in the USA flies a premium transcon product on all their planes, so they are hardly alone in this assessment), and that a dedicated premium transcon subfleet didn't make sense. It is quite possible they are as wrong about this as Smisek was wrong about his vision for UA post-CO "acquisition". But here we are.