rustykettel

sfozrhfco

They are taking the pressure from Wall Street the wrong way which will only alienate people further. Why take on the worst aspects of the legacy carriers? Makes absolutely no sense as they are still a relatively small player. They may as well just redirect their website to southwest.com or another competitor as they clearly are out of ideas to compete. If they want to charge a fee for something to raise revenue, might I suggest a $5 hummus avoidance fee?

PDXpress

To be honest, this looks like an implemention of basic economy that I would actually buy. I don't mind sitting in the back so long as I have an assigned seats.

Alaska may have figured out how to carve this out just right so that frequent flyers won't buy it but price-sensitive families will, and won't have a horrible experience .

Single_Flyer

I am hoping that Alaska, if they actually follow through with this basic economy, will at least do it better than the legacy carriers.

Allow seat selection (but just in the back), earn redeemable miles/elite qualifying miles (but just at a lesser rate), and bring on a carry on.

jinglish

I'm feeling vindicated in my decision to status match to DL this summer.

Westcoaster

So it will be like the 3 bears. This thread title is too general and the other one is too specific for a combined thread. Our very talented mods will come up with one that is just right.

MJMLBBtoCPH

This may do it for me too. I like Southwest and occasionally fly them when I'm not flying AS. Now, I may end up directing all of my revenue to Southwest (or occasionally Jet Blue). I don't care about sitting in the back that much, but because of the way my travel has changed over the last year, I HAVE to have the flexibility to change around my flights.

Two years ago I status-matched to AS from AA Platinum when AA went revenue-based with minimum spend requirement. As an MVP Gold, AS was even better than AA Platinum, but I should have known it was all too good to be true.

If AS screws their loyal customers, they really will lose out to Southwest and Jet Blue.

I wish some new airlines would come into the market.

FlyASaura

Considering that Delta already has a basic economy fare that is similar or slightly more restrictive, a comparatively mediocre and lower rated FF program with a spend requirement, and half the number of flights from Seattle, I'm not really sure why you would. It's all relative.

jinglish

DL will at least give me 1 MQM per mile flown on international travel; I've been earning 50% EQMs or even less (30% on JL!) on cheap partner coach fares when crediting to AS. If I don't meet the spend requirement next year, I'll just go free agent anyway.

lalala

MJMLBBtoCPH

Oops, well I take back what I said about Jet Blue. They are apparently also considering basic economy as well.

https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...here-left-run/

AS travelers I guess will have to flock to Southwest as the last holdout of decency and honorable business practices.

Is part of the failure behind a lack of new start-up airlines due to the draconian regulatory environment of the federal government, or is there some other explanation? Maybe/hopefully Onejet will come to my city soon?

Legend717

I think we all need to calm down and take a Xanax here.
We don't know the full details yet.
Maybe the AS approach will be less sucky than the approaches that UA, DL, and AA have taken.
Or, if not, then guess what? They'll be ABOUT THE SAME.
While jumping to WN would work for some of you, for some of us, that isn't an option. And let's not even pretend that the WN product and the AS product are the same. I mean, WN doesn't even offer first class, with the new/improved selection of "all our meals are salads, but we're not going to call them that!" west-coast catering extravaganza!

eponymous_coward

The details so far are bad enough (60 day non-elite change waiver gone, etc.) that I know a "no changes, no waivers, no favors" fare class that ends up being what AS uses on fare sales is going to push a good chunk of my business to WN pretty quickly. I looked through my currently booked tickets. R class (absolute lowest fare class) all over them.

On a two or three hour flight, first class is a nice to have, not an essential for me. A meal that can be replaced for $5-10 at the airport? Meh. Unlimited booze (and AS always seems to get rid of things I like such as Glenlivet, Woodford Reserve or Sun Liquor)? Meh. I end up driving when I get off the plane anyways a lot of the time, so more than a drink is not really going to happen. So it's the big seat. Do I want to pay to get into the upgrade lottery? Not really. If I want F I can buy F, but that's what the airline wants, isn't it?

But throwing away hundreds of dollars on non-changeable fares and being unable to take advantage of price breaks or to change plans post-purchase is a deal-breaker for me. Your mileage may vary. I've known this applies to my situation and have said it since Basic Economy crept onto the scene.

dayone

Good advice (certainly the former; the latter is at pilot's discretion).

milypan