<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GUWonder:
Has someone who knows the process of slot allocation know how pertinent congressional and (vice-)presidential pressure are in such decisions.</font>
Very pertinent. There was significant pressure from senior members of Congress who have to transfer through SLC on their way home from Washington.
Don't know about Vice-Presidential pressure, but with the added service to JAC this year from places other (and better) than SLC, I don't think such a use of political capital would be neccessary.
I know that Frontier applied for DCA-DEN service, and I read their brief to the DOT. IMHO, they had a fairly strong case. But political maneuvering seems to have made Delta's case stronger.