That is true an well tested by yours truly many many times this past year.WS came in higher very often.

I've found that WS always matches AC's prices, but they often sell out of their cheap seats much faster. (In which case, who cares whether they are matching if the seat is unavailable.) I don't know if this is because WS assigns fewer cheap seats, or people buy cheap WS seats faster.

It's also worth considering which fares can be upgraded on different airlines. International upgrades using miles seem to be very restricted on NW/CO/DL (limited fares, hardly any availability) and much better on AA (better availability, upgrade from any fare if you pay a penalty in miles). If you don't have top-tier status, this is the only way to get an upgrade on an international flight.

KH,What about Air Creebec...they fly to lots of places.

I suspect WESTJET is now so ingrained on some people that they assume it offers the lowest fares, even if AC now matches and has more availability. Same way people thought for the final 6-months of its life that CP was no longer in business, so its flights went out mostly empty and check-in staff had little to do, while AC check-ins were swamped and flights were always full.

I suspect the above had more to do with AC's incompetence during the merger than anything else.

This is true. People believe that WS is cheaper, when they may not be. One of the reasons for WS pulling out of Destina was that they did npt compare favourably with AC over many of the paralell routes
Also true. AC originally thought that would run CP as its own entity side by side with AC. They very quickly had to merge the two together because every one quit buying CP.

Here's Northwest. Weak in Europe, non-existant in Africa, South America, and Australia, very strong in Asia, pretty good in the Caribbean and Mexico, and very good in Canada. Keep in mind that NW has very good reciprocal arrangements with KLM, so some of the gaps may not be as important as with other carriers.

NW
Europe
Paris
Amsterdam
London
Rome
Frankfurt
Asia
Singapore
Bangkok
Hong Kong
Manila
Taipei
Shanghai
Beijing
Seoul
Busan
Osaka
Nagoya
Tokyo
Saipan
Rota
Guam
Dehli
Mumbai
Caribbean
Liberia (CR) (S)
Nassau (S)
Grand Cayman (S)
Montego Bay
Puerto Plata (S)
Punta Cana (S)
San Juan (PR)
Mexico
Mexico City
Cancun
Puerto Vallarta (S)
Ixtapa (S)
Acapulco (S)
Cozumel (S)
Canada
Vancouver
Calgary
Toronto
Montreal
Ottawa
Quebec (S)
Edmonton
Saskatoon
Winnipeg
Regina
Thunder Bay
London

And one airline is making money and the other is still losing buckets of money!

Also true of Southwest down in the States. Many think Southwest, as the original discount airline, is the cheapest even when they are not.

--
By the way, Rome is a seasonal destination for Northwest.

Were we talking about making money or fares charged?

Is there not a direct relationship between revenue/fares charged and profits????

Geez... I couple double our sales and increase our market share next year by dropping our selling price below our costs. Of course than we would find ourselves in bankruptcy court.

Do you not find it ironic that if your experience is correct, that a LCC can and does charge more "for less" than a full service airline? Why are people prepared to pay more for less????

NW makes up for the lack of European and Mexico/Caribbean destinations by having codeshare/alliance agreements with KLM, Continental, Copa, and now Delta. Still weak in Australia, but strong pretty much everywhere else.

My continued point being that the discussion was about fares not bottom line;of course I know the difference.

Ac's bankruptcy was not due to the fares charged but a huge debt from the purchase of Canadian

Well than let's see. AC is in bankruptcy protection, is not making any debt payments (on it's own debt or debt inherited from CP), is only making lease payments on approx 2/3's of its fleet (those that they have renegotiated leases with), has received wage and work rule concessions from it's unionized employees and yet to this day it is still losing money! I would suggest to you that AC has not only an expense problem but also very much a revenue problem. So when you make comments that in your experience AC has been cheaper than WJ I can't help but note that AC is losing money and WJ is profitable and that it is very east to price yourself out of business by selling below cost. Market share at the expense of profitability is a dangerous game. What I find interesting from a business point of view is that WJ, a "LCC" is able to charge more for less. One would have thought that AC, a so called "full service airline" would be able to a charge a premium, even a small one and would not have to discount its price or product to compete with WJ. Yet according to your experiences this is not the case!