mvoight

AA flies SJC-SNA
I beleive someone other than WN also flies it from SFO.

bayarea_LCSA

AA flies SJC-SNA and SFO-SNA
UA flies SFO-SNA
B6 (Jetblue) flies OAK-LGB (Long Beach)

then you have WN.

Eastbay1K

I just booked an OAK/SNA. It wasn't a great fare, but it was substantially less than WN for the same dates and general flight times. 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. At $185 RT(AS) this is not a money loser on a fairly full plane. 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.

jackal

I think this is why WN (and most of the other LCCs) have avoided participating in the online travel agencies (yes, they claim it's to avoid the high costs of doing business on the expensive GDS systems, but there are cheaper alternatives to GDSes, and they could at least participate in Kayak, which would simply search their website directly at very little to no cost). They've successfully trained everyone that they're always going to have the lowest fare, so everyone always goes directly to southwest.com to book, never even looking at others' rates.

If they hadn't have made such a huge push in the past to drive all of the traffic directly to their website, people may have gotten into the habit of comparing them with everyone else at Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, et al., and their strategy may have failed.

Duckouttahere

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.

rjque

WN is successful because of frequency on the intra-CA routes, not because they are the cheapest. The flexibility offered by flights every 30 minutes on some routes just can't be beat.

jackal

So, WN markets itself as a leisure airline, but they actually attract the business traveler because of the frequency of their flights? Sounds like they should shift their marketing target demographic (and maybe install some F seats while they're at it)!

rjque

There is no need to shift marketing dollars or add F class. WN owns the intra-California business travel market simply because they have far more flight options to more Southern California airports than any other airline. Only UA's SFO-LAX service comes close in terms of frequency.

Eastbay1K

Today, AS sent an email entitled "Changes in Oakland and Orange County Service" - (sounds so much better than Cancelled ) - with a $50 e-cert - a few days too late, after I booked an OAK/SNA trip.

AS FF Guru

I think it's a Walmart effect. Walmart doesn't always have the lowest prices, but they tell you they do. "Always low prices, always." I think that's the same mentality that's going on here with AS vs. WN in this market. Why shop elsewhere when WN is the "discount king" (to steal the description used for WN in a recent media report).

SEA_Tigger

It also helps WN that they don't post their fare data to Internet fare search engines so it requires more effort and steps to determine how WN's fares compare with other carriers.

makfan

SNA_Flyer said it all. I can't stand the RJ's on AA and the prices are absurd.

The choices between here and the LA area keep dwindling. There are lots of options between the two delay-prone, congested airports (SFO/LAX) and not much but WN to the others.

makfan

SJC-SNA: AA has one or two mainline flights with the rest on Eagle.
SFO-SNA: AA is all Eagle, UA has jets.

While these are short flights, the 1000 EQMs 5 or 6 times a year do contribute to my status tier. Last year I had only 50,217 EQMs on AA. I may have to grit my teeth and take a RJ or drive to SJC (Caltrain and the 10 shuttle takes too freaking long).

makfan

I think you are correct. I know too many occasional travelers who go directly to WN's website and don't look at anything else for these trips.

rjque

That may be true in many of WN's markets but I don't think it is the case in this one or any other intra-California route. These planes are full of business travelers who don't look at any other airline because they know WN is going to have the best schedule. I know many people with UA status, myself included, who fly WN on these routes regardless of price simply because of the flexibility offered by the WN schedule.

AS had the leisure market on this route because AS was pretty much always the cheapest. AS just doesn't have enough presence on the Northern California - Southern California market to draw in business travelers.