There were definitely a lot of factors at play here. And let me state for the record that I really liked this flight and was shifting my SAN trips predominantly over to AS

For one thing, there was absolutely no marketing (or if there was it was limited, and didnt see or hear anything) within the STL community for the flight; ask most of the general STL public and I doubt most would have known, or for that matter considered, using AS to get to SAN or for that matter other West Coast destinations. Unless you are exWest Coast, you wouldn't think to fly an airline called Alaska to anywhere but well Alaska; the Midwest is stuck with this idea that WN is the cheapest and its the best because not only do you get a free bag, but you get to pick your seat! *rollseyes*

AS has a token presence here in STL with up until this point only two options SEA or SAN; granted I wasn't expecting a full blown mini-hub, but without even a PDX nonstop (SAN was added around the time PDX was dropped I believed), we are left with two daily flights to SEA....which limits the number of places you can fly beyond SEA.

With no FF partnership with carriers flying east of the Mississippi (yes I realize they codeshare with AA but its not a full blown agreement with reciprocal earning/benefits/etc), why would someone in STL choose to fly AS over other carriers that had a much broader network and better connectivity?

Additionally, while the nonstop was priced in line with WN, AS pricing out of STL to the West Coast is not competitive. Unless you want to fly to SEA, connecting markets are usually 2-3x more expensive than WN or anyone else.....yes I realize they are focused on the local traffic, but even if I wanted to continue flying AS to get to SAN via SEA why would I pay $375/ow when I can just fly UA over SFO for about half the cost, and a shorter trip duration?

Was STLSAN printing money? I highly doubt it....but I'm convinced it could have hung on if they adopted a better strategy at least with respect to SAN as a whole. That being said for SAN in general AS either needs to go full blown and run it like a hub, or stop trying to go head-to-head with WN. There is no reason to think they cannot operate alongside WN, but then again they have an advantage in the ability to utilize Q400s or E175s to serve markets that WN cannot, but they also need to use a little common sense. Does SANRDM have longer term viability than SANSTL or SANMCI? I'm thinking not, but I suppose time will tell.