Originally Posted by
milypan
I can't speak for others, but I'm not arguing that they're doomed. I'm just saying don't expect them to get a lot of traction with "elites" outside of SEA (and maybe ANC?). But hopefully they don't need that in order to have a sustainable business...certainly that's what management has claimed with their "leisure enthusiast"-focused strategy and "relevance" metrics.
I don't think they're trying for the AA/UA/DL corporate traveler market out of SFO/LAX. No international outside of partners (and even at that there are real holes; Europe is "some of OW and a random assortment of LCCs"), no real way to get to second-tier USA locations outside of very expensive AA codeshares, no premium transcon. It doesn't make sense. They get some of that out of SEA (though they certainly didn't start out in the 80's post-deregulation with 55% SEA market share), but it's more a case of what they've built over time. But those weren't WN or B6 strengths either.
My guess is AS is going to keep chipping away at SFO/LAX marketshare much like how they built up SJC and SAN; accretive, occasional route adds over time. The bones of what VX left them help because they'll have some markets out of that.