Originally Posted by sullim4

I wouldn't say crashing and burning, but I would say they aren't an airline I would pay a premium for any longer, and I wouldn't choose them unless they had a superior schedule or were quite a bit cheaper than the competition. I used to feel positively towards Alaska because:

• They offered a solid soft product in flight with good flight attendants, especially relative to their competition.
• They seemed interested in doing right by the customer when things went wrong.
• MileagePlan offered outsized value relative to their competition.
• Phone reps were easy to get a hold of during non-IRROPS times.
• They had good partnerships to the places I wanted to take long haul J to - specifically South America.

Yesterday's press conference with Boeing was very telling. This is the company, mind you, that blamed one of Alaska's pilots for the door plug issue and has systemic problems in their culture with respect to safety. The company that put Alaska's customers' lives in danger. And yet we see the Alaska CEO there proudly trumpeting the partnership with this company and falling all over himself talking about a beautiful livery.

Alaska doesn't give two hoots about their IT or the customer experience anymore. They care about the stock price and financials. All companies of course do to some extent, but they also have to keep customers happy so they come back. That's where Alaska is failing more recently. It'll take some time for that to show up in financials, but it will. Delta is doubling down in SEA for a reason.