This was the major benefit pre merger. SFO had amongst the most competitive fares nationwide. We really need some strong competitors at SFO that drive growth with reasonable fares. Alaska refused to create a competitive product and the network has been unravelling for years now so it is quite obvious that AS had and continues to give up. Even in LA, I would guess the only reason that one LAX-EWR flight is kept is not for network relevance but rather if all 6 SFO/LAX-EWR flights were moved to SEA/PDX, they would severely trash their own yields in the PDX/SEA-NYC market. They are simply slot squatting and trying to lose less on their fights to EWR. Again they don't have the product to compete with DL/UA/B6 in the premium space unless they use HA planes, and as the network continues to deteriorate, their customer base goes back to what they had in 2015--people going north within the Western 3rd of the US, occasionally going south, or now to HI. Everybody else is SOL.