new direct WN service STL <-> MSP will compete with NW/DL
 

Got an email today from WN with $49 promo fares (taxes extra) sold next 3 days for STL <-> MSP for travel Jan 10 - Mar 12 (suggests these routes are to begin Jan 10, quick parsing of WN website would seem to confirm that).

MikeMpls, drsan, here it comes!

I already booked 3 round trips. :D Once companion passes for WifeMpls are factored in, our average round-trip fares will be $62.10 -- quite a drop from the $560 gouge that NW was trying to extract a year ago.

Interesting that was not the next route I thought they would do, but in hind site AA is pulling out fast so STL is opening up.

My prediction is that WN will be the largest tenant at Humphrey very soon, if not already. They will expand quickly. Think of other cities where this happened (PHL, DEN and probably others).

This flight makes sense, WN uses STL extensively to get around the Wright Amendment at DAL. Effectively this flight makes for efficient connections to DAL and onward in Texas. I doubt the old Northwest would have put up with this...

or the 1200 for under 2 weeks.

i did manage to get a 380 under 7 days a couple weeks back.

We never paid > $330 per person, but it took some real effort to achieve that, e.g. back to back NW/UA tickets via ORD, funky DL routings through Travelocity, flying once out of RST for $240, a YX sale which backfired when they canceled the route but we managed to get 2 of our 4 trips pushed to NW, etc. For most of a year prior to that we were often flying into ORD/MDW & then driving to the St. Louis area; I kept wondering if National would fire me for all the mileage we were running up on the cheap weekend rentals.

WN has really been a breath of fresh air in this market and has put an end to a year & a half of hassles in avoiding grossly overpriced plane tickets.

Airbus must have really ramped up the production lines. :)

And if you can't check in right at the T-24 hour mark, WN is starting Early Bird Check In for $10/person in each direction. Yes, it is a "fee" but it is optional. I guess checked baggage fees on other airlines can be considered "optional" too but not too many leisure travelers can fly somewhere without checking at least one piece of luggage.

It is kind of a catch 22. If too many people pay it, then you are almost forced to as well to get a halfway decent boarding number. Time will tell how it works out.

Breath of fresh air is right. I just saw the WN announcement and was delighted. I was hoping the next route that WN opened up ex-MSP was STL, and it happened.

Delta, sorry, this is going to cost you 30-40 segments a year and $15-20K in revenue. Given the reduction in FF benefits and the downsizing of metal ex-STL, WN is now going to get 100% of my business from that station.

The next move for Virginia Avenue is, of course, to cut frequency MSP-STL. That will completely seal their fate for me and several other STL-based FFers. For me, this is the last domino to fall. STL-MSP nonstop on WN, game over.

Goodbye, Delta! It's been nice, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun.

Did the last half dozen MSP-STL trips on 2 tix thru MDW. NW/DL fares are just plain stupid.

Had to change the last one -- WN simply redeposits, lets the change happen with no real 'penalty'. The NW portion from MDW-MSP was $114 1-way, so cheaper to burn the return on original and buy a new 1-way (versus the $150 change fee plus some $200 + fare difference they invented -- when the $114 1-way was still available!)

No Barbie Jets anymore....

I actually fully expected this to be announced by the end of 2009 and one of the very next ones ex-MSP. With only really NW and AA running flights on that route, it was too fat a target for WN to resist.

Yeah, I'm in a little bit of a pickle here too. NW/DL still goes a lot of places I need to go within some perimeter of reasonable efficiency and better than AA. But for midwest travel incl MDW, DEN, and now MSP, it's going to get harder and harder to justify NOT flying WN. The prospect of flying a late version Fat Albert vs. a CRJ200 almost seals it.
Once I ex-out these more 'local' routes it makes it hard to justify the other ones as slipping out of high elite status will definitely make it not worth it.
If I swap it'll cost DL ~2x what drsan is talking about.

Do DTW-BWI sale!

& UA is eliminating mainline service at STL.

...fabulous. Now there really is no reason NOT to choose F9 or WN for STL <-> DEN.

I hope WN's next route out of MSP is to LAS. NW/DLs fares to LAS have been extremely high lately.

Oh and when did United start doing non-stops MSP-LAX? That was a breath of fresh air when I saw that!