Fair enough - I've never flown Jetblue. I would extent the basic dignity acknowledgement to some other non-ULCCs that aren't part of major alliances as well. Jet Airways, Emirates, Aer Lingus, and a few others as tolerable as a non-status passenger. Elite tiers exist, but they aren't used to bludgeon the non-elites into a miserable overall experience at all possible customer service touchpoints.

And I know this sounds nuts to some, but I would rather fly Spirit - and have actually bought tickets on Spirit - to avoid flying Delta without status. My only catch is that I won't sit in the 28-inch seat, so I verify that BFS is available before I buy and jump online to confirm it within 2 or 3 minutes of buying my ticket. On stuff like MCI-DTW, why pay Delta $300 to get crap treatment when you can pay Spirit $50 + $30 for the seat and at least be comfortable? Some would say IROPS support, but if something goes wrong it's probably a trip-in-vain either way. In that case, I'd rather just by trying to get $80 back instead of $300.

It will really depend on whether you have to connect much and the time between connections. A 45 minute connection at BWI or DEN or LAX is more than enough normally and nice that you don't have to spend all day waiting around but 5 or 10 minutes late can make a huge difference. Burned so many times with an A01. It is the one huge flaw in the open seating scheme that no one talks about. Otherwise, I love the open seating.

Good point. I can count on one hand the number of times I've arrived at the gate after boarding has started on Delta and American. So it will probably be rare for me on Southwest. AND - I intentionally book itineraries with time between because I hate running through airports and people won't move to the right on the blanking escalators anyway. :mad:

The last time I flew American, I had a delayed flight out of DCA. When I got the option to rebook, I took one 2 flights later to avoid a close call. I had a nice, leisurely dinner at DFW and got home two hours late. People who tried to take that next flight missed it after running through the airport. Most probably spent the night in Dallas because the next (and last) flight was full, by that point.

Point is, I do silly things sometimes just to avoid mad dashes. This could still work out fine for me.

Absolutely, good strategy. However with my "remote" and largely abandoned station (ISP) and connections - plus WN's point to point service, I rarely had the ability to choose the next connecting flight just an hour later. Hopefully this will work better for you, intra CA, its a whole different airline too.

Interesting. I've thought about flying Frontier but I can never make the math work on my flights; by the time I add a carry-on bag and seat selection, I'm paying more than Southwest or AA. But I hadn't thought about Spirit. I just checked an itinerary that I just booked yesterday on Southwest - even with a bag fee and the big front seat, Spirit's round-trip fare is $50 cheaper than Southwest.

Depends on the OP's travel patterns and home airport. If doing travel that requires a lot of connections or a lot of transcons (and likely plane switches) then they might encounter this issue. Also it's less likely if OP flies out of a "hub" airport that has lots of flight options (e.g. personally being Bay Area based and with most of my flights being intra-CA or on the West Coast, most of my flights are 1 segment point to points, so A list gets me an aisle or window)

Not a ton of transcons for me. 80% of mine are in a box between Boston, Detroit, Kansas City, Houston, and Orlando.

Occasionally, LAX, SLC, or PHX come into play. Not often.

I am at a small national airport with very few direct options but plenty of connecting flights arriving during the day. If I have 3 potential itineraries to get me there in a 3 hour window, I tend to pick the one with the longest layover, even if it's a few dollars more expensive. That minimizes missed connections and, by proxy, late boarding.

What airport do you use?

LIT.