Only because all the airline stocks are going up on the presumption that RASM is going up. That still remains to be seen in the case of AS. Management really needs to rethink the entire VX network and decide what to do with all those planes. They keep cutting BOS to the point where they are largely irrelevant. VX was never strong in the off season to places like ORD where they could barely support a flight or two a day. Intra-California is still a blood bath. DAL is not the strongest market either. AS has to find some new routes that are not as competitive where they can command some type of fare premium and competitive edge. Otherwise, the VX network will continue to be a drag on their profitability.

This could be the case ex-SEA where there's a line out the door of people willing to pay more for a lesser product so they can brag about it and feel good that they gave that money to the local company.

Here in SFO, I see a number of markets where AS F is low price leader in the premium cabin space.

Which markets? This has been tough for me to find... I try to fly AS but have been flying a lot of UA, DL, AA because the paid F is much (and I mean much!) cheaper... next week am flying UA EWR-SJC for half the cost of AS F on the same route. :(

I know this is really something that AS management needs to address. I really love AS and have defected to them almost 100%, but I'm looking at SFO-BOS and the AS fare is $250 more than lowest, and even $50 more than UA. And all 3 competitors (B6, UA & DL) offer lie-flat. I'd choose AS if it was the same price or lower even without lie flat, but no-way will I pay a premium for the product.

Alaska doesn't yield manage/revenue manage F like the other airlines can. Delta & AA both have a lot of "Y-up" fares, started by TWA in the 90s. I've even done these on AA/DL; whereby you get a Q fare, that's an upgrade into F, and sold as "F" without all the backend perks. I think DL is now only giving you EQM's based on the ticketed fare, and not cabin flown. AS does have discount F fares out there, but Alaska has only 2 public F buckets. Delta & AA have the F - addon on many of their public fare buckets.

AS fare is not coming down. This has been going on for months now. At least the product is some what competitive with competition.

At some point, I suppose you might see $600 when they switch the plane to 739ER, which have the 41 inch domestic F seats. But then the question is why you would pay same fare for a much inferior product.

DL has long offered G/A/P (discounted FC) fares ... many of these have an underlying coach inventory basis (e.g., QUP) but they are considered FC for purposes of MQM/RDM earning, baggage allowances, SDC, etc

Indeed I am typically buying P fares on DL and UA, not YUPs. EWR-SJC 3 wks advance UA P was $487 and AS FC was >$900. No biggie, I bought UA... would just rather fly AS since it's my preferred program. The majors have been discounting F a lot and I hope AS starts to follow suit or at least open up more MPV75 upgrades that are cheaper than the competitions' P. :)