Originally Posted by
Gig103
Southwest's open seating was a "market differentiator" too. I like the AS program, moved to it from AA for a reason. I hope my pessimism is wrong

I personally think that's apples and oranges. SWA was losing business because of the open seat model, and losing profit due to no premium cabin. So sure, it was a market differentiator, but in a bad way. AS thinks it is retaining members because of the distance based model, and if you go over to the BA forum more than a few people are saying they are going to start crediting to Mileage Plan due to their recent changes. So they have a market differentiator, but in a good way.