Originally Posted by VegasGambler

As someone who flew exclusively in F on VX, I understand where you are coming from. If you are anything like me, you are willing to pay for a premium product, but you are not willing to pay premium prices for a non-premium product. I took one paid F trip on AS, and after that, never again.

My advice is to simply not pay for F on AS. They are a fine economy class airline but they just don't get the concept of first class.

I was fortunate because for the longer routes that I fly often (SFO-NYC and SFO-Hawaii) UA offers a premium (lie-flat) product. I also find the service and food to be much better on UA F than AS F. So I just pay for F on UA for those flights.

I stick with AS for shorter routes because, as I said, they are a fine economy class airline and you really do earn a lot of valuable miles (when it comes to the FFP, I find that AS is far better than any other domestic carrier, and it's not close)

If you can maintain status (even just MVP) on AS they are great for shorter flights. You will generally get premium seats, and tons of miles. For longer flights, find another airline that offers a true premium product along with premium service, and pay for that. Status isn't worth that much when you are in paid F anyway. If you do enough longer flights, you may even be able to maintain status on both airlines.