Originally Posted by
Eastbay1K
The thing is that when most folks want "the low fare" on these hops, they go right to WN. And if they see $261 RT is the lowest fare at that time, they figure that it must be. But the fact is that many people don't even to to AS because WN is "always going to have the lowest fare." WN had this same fare on all of its flights within a certain time range, so it wasn't that only 1 or 2 was nearly sold out. Hey, for $291 on WN, I could get boarding status A, double credits, AND a free cocktail.
In early January, my dad asked me if I knew his Southwest RR # because he was heading to "LA" for a conference. I found out later that he was heading to Orange County not LAX or I would have tried to convince him to take Alaska out of Oakland (he hates going to SFO). Unfortunately, he thinks Southwest first because of all the Southwest flights out of Oakland and Alaska doesn't even come into his mind even with my flying Alaska a lot. I don't know where Southwest gets all it's money for marketing but they're certainly doing a great job getting people to think about them first.