As the economic situation worsens, even more companies will tighten their travel budgets. As this happens, the numbers of mid-range fare flyers (also known as the $600-1000 tickets) will continue to decrease. These flyers will drop down to the $400-800 category and possibly end up on Southwest, ATA, AmericaWest, JetBlue AND Northwest!

The other majors will continue to discriminate against low-fare flyers (by offering only 1/2 Elite miles (DL), pulling out seats from the low fare buckets (CO), replacing planes with smaller ones (CO, US) and making upgrades harder and more expensive (UA, AA, DL, US)). As a result, NW may end up as the most popular 'major' airline, with 90+% load factors with many happy Eiltes flying in the not-so-stellar (but free to upgrade to) First Class product.