Trip report: April 14, WN 2581 LAS DEN

The flight was pretty light, about 70% full. I made the mistake of sitting in seat 2F. If I would have gone back further, I probably would have had an open middle. Instead, an older couple took 2D and 2E. This is a "minor" advantage of assigned seats -- However many times I have had United put people next to me only to see other middle seats open, so there isn't much rhyme or reason to it at UA.

The flight time was right for me, departing about 1PM vs. either a noon or 3PM flight. The reduced stress knowing that I have a refundable, fully changable (yet reasonably priced) ticket was very nice.

The airplane could have been a little cleaner. The window was covered with something kind of sticky and the seat back (head rest) also wasn't completely clean.

Over on the United board, someone pointed out that United's fully refundable fares on this run (LAS DEN) are only about $3 higher than WN. However, that is not the case on DEN RNO, where UA was $371 and WN is $205. The difference of course is that UA/TED is a nonstop and WN is a one-stop through SLC, LAS or PHX.

As a UA Premier, there is a slight advantage to Economy Plus and the 5 extra inches of leg room, but, overall, I'd much rather have an open middle seat that Economy Plus. It was only through my own mistake that I didn't end up with an open middle on this flight -- and that was because I was talking on my cell phone when I was boarding and thus didn't want to go further back into the plane.

It could put my United Premier status in question, but overall Southwest was the way to go. I'm strongly thinking that the whole United Premier loyalty program costs a flyer too much -- in dollars and in taking less than the best flight for him. If a flyer chooses the airline that is best on a single route for that particular day, without regard to how many segments he will accumulate in a year hoping to make, for example, UA Premier, overall he flies for less, with fewer hassles, on the flights that suit him best. At least some of the time, that will include WN flights. For me, it certainly does between LAS and RNO. It sometimes does between DEN and LAS. Between DEN and RNO, UA still has the best service (sorry, a non-stop on UA still beats going several hundred miles and at least a couple of hours out of the way).

If WN does get service from RNO to DEN and DEN to STL, however..... Look out United! I've already mostly shifted my DEN STL traffic to Frontier. On the last booking, there was a $64/seat/round-trip cost difference. Flying a family of 3, that is $192 different. When flying with 3, UA won't let me use my PREMIER status to move both wife and daughter up to E+. So, I'm paying $192 and not getting the chance to have Direct TV -- the only value for that $192 is to help to keep my status up at the PREMIER level. However, they will give me the chance to buy up to PREMIER for $200 late in the year (at least last year they did). So, I'm better off flying Frontier, banking the $192, seeing how it goes and then maybe buying up on the status.