VXforever

Betterthanyou

Be careful! The wrath of FT WN Apologists is merciless!

VegasGambler

Back in the day when I was a Vegas regular (my name is about 2 years out of date) I was sitting in VX F on LAS-SFO. Sitting beside this nice older lady. We got to talking and she said that she was flying back home to SAN. But she refused to fly WN so she was taking the long way home on VX. She said that she would rather spend half a day flying VX F than an hour on WN. Seemed reasonable to me...

cmd320

Never understood why people fly regularly with WN. For the individual who only ever buys Y-, flies a couple times a year, and checks luggage I guess it may make sense in some cases. Overall though, WN isn’t cheap, their product sucks, and their FFP is trash. Really nothing redeeming about it unless you really just like unassigned seating I guess.

VegasGambler

I used to fly WN because it used to be cheap. My first ever flight to Vegas cost me $25, bought through the old "Ding!" desktop program (wow, before apps...)

Now, it left at 6am from SJC, but it was $25... And... that was before they had points. You could turn 16 segments flown into any round trip you wanted. I actually flew a transcon (to Buffalo) as my first ever award flight.

Then at some point I realized (1) they sucked (2) they weren't cheap any more, (3) their FFP was garbage some they went from seems to points, and (4) even they had still been cheap, I made too much money and was too old for that crap. I turned all my WN points into amazon gift cards, status matched to VX, started flying exclusively VX F, and never looked back.

eponymous_coward

What does flying WN have to do with being disappointed AS doesn't have a premium transcon offering?

sfozrhfco

It is pretty obvious. WN used to be the no frills option which was clearly differentiated from the legacy carriers. The legacy carriers kept degrading their product to the point that most people couldn't tell the difference between WN and the rest of the carriers. WN hasn't changed their product much and continue to offer free bags and changes while the other carriers added fees for everything. If you are taking a flight from Northern to Southern California for instance, most fares are use it or lose by default given the relatively low fare levels so this also helps WN in that their passengers have some flexibility. WN became a better value for many people. Once people are used to something it is difficult to get them to change behavior--especially when they can't be bothered to check out the other options available.

It is the same type of thing but in the opposite direction with AS and the premium transcon model. They are counting on people not realizing that the premium products are vastly different on competitors and often offered at similar prices. They have chosen the WN approach in that they remain the same but in this case, their competitors are improving. It is still a very open question as to whether their reluctance to change will hurt them as more and more premium passengers branch out and leave AS behind. This has been my choice. Why would I pay for F on AS when I can fly transcons in Mint on JetBlue for the same price or less? I would be an idiot to do so. I also don't care about accumulating points with AS as I rarely go to Asia, don't like their Europe partners, other Latin America carriers would better for me, and I don't find the domestic AS product compelling enough given the limited options from SFO. For those that will only fly in F with a free upgrade, AS can still be a good option but for me, I would rather get better value for my money and take other carriers which better meet my needs.

VegasGambler

Because AS is the new WN.

jinglish

Seriously?

eponymous_coward

Forget it Jake, it's FlyerTalk.

_fx

ITT, only the routes I fly matter and anything that isn't LAX/SFO-JFK doesn't exist.

VegasGambler

I made the point above that I don't think it's quite THAT bad. But when you aggressively join the race to the bottom, the comparison is going to be made.

jinglish

Improving their premium cabin hard product to where it's the best on most routes except the premium transcon markets is racing to the bottom?

dayone

Moderator Note: The discussion has drifted into the well-traveled land of debating transcon offerings and other carriers. Plenty of other threads to rehash that hash. Time to close.

dayone, AS Moderator