First, the average person flies less than once per year, pre-COVID. But obviously the 90+% of Americans who fly less than six times per year aren’t AS’s market for this product. (Personally, I took my first flight since 2019 this week. I flew a lot more than that pre-pandemic, but there was never a time when I flew six short haul round trips in a year like the target market of this subscription, and I fly far more than the average American, if less than the average FlyerTalker.)

The terms are pretty restrictive. It works best for people who fly pretty well distributed through the year: you get a round trip credit every two months in the base plan, and only one credit is valid at a time. You can book for 90 days beyond the eligibility period, but lose the ability to cancel once the coupon expires, and I would think flexibility is one of the key perks of a subscription instead of just buying tickets. So even someone who flies six round trips within CA/AZ/NV on routes served nonstop by AS could only use them if they had a trip roughly every two months. And you have to be paying enough attention to remember to book each credit before it expires. Obviously that’s not too difficult, but it’s another thing to keep track of.