Originally Posted by
sfozrhfco
Much more likely that people have already left. Their earnings calls have included mention of weakness in transcons for quite some time and they are trying to sell the FF program over the product but the addition of saver fares and the cut back in some frequencies often makes AS a weak choice on those routes.
Fair points. Saver fares are potentially hurting them vs B6, but not AA/DL/UA. Perhaps one goal of bonus is to help AS stabilize traffic through B6's saver/basic econ rollout of their own...
Originally Posted by
Manoa Chris
Was there a VX customer base?
Maybe B6 has the answer?
Originally Posted by
Manoa Chris
Excellent point about mitigating saver fares.
Yet bizarre: AS sells compromised tickets at lower cost, and now offsets with double the RDM? And for nine months?
I guess these travelers are less likely to redeem, or at least less likely to redeem on pricier international awards. So maybe this pencils out financially, but seems like a poor competitive move. As opposed to selling advance fares that don't automatically consign you to six hours in a middle seat.
Timing does stretch through latest possible roll-out of B6's saver product (unless delayed till next year).