Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
"Hey, shareholders, I know we have a fiduciary duty to make money for you, but I was wondering if we could lose money instead banging our head against a wall running 7x daily SFO/LAX-ORD/JFK/MIA/IAD/DEN straight into the teeth of OAL hubs, because some FTers have the sads about our route network, is that OK with you?"
I get it, but also following AA's model of just retreating from every market where you can't dominate hasn't proven to be particularly effective. Now do they need 7x daily? No, but also the 5x weekly at random times that change for no reason doesnt exactly allow for a competitive experience.
For comparison sake, I don't love DAL but they can pretty much get me anywhere from SFO in a decent manner even though they don't have a huge presence. Alaska? Not so much, not even if you want to stop in Seattle all the time and pay the much higher premium for the privilege of connecting.
I do love AS's cheap inter-CA fares though. Probably not a huge margin going on there but must be worth it to someone in the accounting department.