To be fair, I've sat on a UA IAD-LAS flight and witnessed the same loud, obnoxious and rude behavior.

Fair enough, it was just one example. And I suspect the WN seating free-for-all actually facilitated this as they all boarded together. It could happen on UA but you'd all have to book pretty far in advance, and pretty close to the same time. I think they'd have been a little more considerate if there were other customers, especially families, mixed in (at least I hope).

Maybe my business model argument is just an excuse to rant about how much I hate WN's boarding process :D.

Which goes to show the stock market doesn't always get it right.

In Chicago, WN only flies in and out of MDW, while UA uses ORD. This could make a code share arrangement difficult for flight connections here.

When was the last time you flew WN? Have some facts to back up your lofty claims?

20 minute turns were the norm when WN flew smaller planes, with lighter load factors, prior to devolve seating, boarding card were issued on a first come, first served basis. In today's reality, with 737-800 devolve 175 seats loaded to capacity, highly monetized boarding process, quick turns (less than 30 minutes) only occur when there are a large number of through passengers.
In contrast, no other full service carrier attempts to load as many bodies on to a 737, due to their first class cabin. For this reason alone, the boarding process is often much faster.

UA does not represent the modern full service carrier, happens to be the only one today unable to make a profit.
How about AS, who offers a travel voucher or extra airline miles if your bags are not on the carousel within 20 minutes of arrival? http://www.alaskaair.com/content/tra...guarantee.aspx
In DFW, one of AA's major hubs, there are signs at each gate ramp indicating the respective baggage carousel, as well as wait time for bags. While I have never checked a bag to DFW, all of the wait times I have seen are in the 15 - 24 minute range.

Put down the LUV Koolaid for a few minutes, check out some FACTS:
http://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/n....html?page=all guess you never fly to MDW on WN
http://online.wsj.com/articles/bagga...844929836.html
In the U.S., the rate of mishandled baggage tracked by the Transportation Department fell 54%, to 3.22 of every 1,000 passengers last year from 7.03 out of every 1,000 passengers in 2007. While 2013 saw 21% improvement in the rate of mishandled bags world-wide over 2012, the 3.22 rate in the U.S. actually slipped a bit from 2012, largely because of poorer baggage handling at Southwest Airlines and its AirTran Airways subsidiary.

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...-its-edge.aspx

I can't believe this goofy off-the-wall thread made it 5 pages.

Change your page length to 40 posts and it is only 1 1/2 pages :D

I think the issue was more the destination of LAS than the airline. On midweek business routes you can't tell the difference between WN passengers and those on any other airline.

I have a west coast bias, but I think United fails at the most basic premise of what they provide - transportation. One third of my travel dollars go to WN and virtually the rest of it goes to UA.

There are around 60,000,000 people in Cali / Ore / Wash / Nevada. Like most Californians, I have a boatload of intra-California travel. The travel proposition on WN is an easy choice. Based in the Bay, I can essentially fly on WN easily from any of either SJC/SFO/OAK to LAX/BUR/ONT/SNA/SAN/PDX/SEA.

UA seems to think that their SFO hub is good enough to provide for all those destinations. It's not - I'm an hour away from SFO on a non-traffic day. I have virtually no *A options from SJC or OAK to any west coast destination. (and later this year, I'll lose the option to fly UA SJC-LAX).

Seems to me if they can't figure out how to provide to the most populous state in the union where they have substantial hub presence - they need to rethink it.

Obviously this is a outsider's simple solution, but I would spin off 20-30 planes and create a new west coast subsidiary airline. New union contracts, new attitude.

You clearly do not live in LAS.

Oh yeah, because the UA travelers out of there are angels, I'm sure.

I know that I am stating the obvious, but some posters don't seem to understand. It seems that we are forgetting the basis for this thread.

WN does not code share - except with merger partners until they are fully integrated. WN does not normally interline.

Wasn't the original poster trying to express disappointment with United's domestic product (poor customer service, disenchanted employees, too many regional jets on mainline routes, poor domestic first class product, late flights, etc.)? Doesn't it seem like the current management is abandoning domestic service - or at least reducing it to a low cost carrier status? So much so that it seems that the current management could incredibly (but probably not realistically, I hope) reduce United to an international carrier with a domestic network served by code share partners?

Incredibly, they seem to want to perfect the Pan Am model!

With all the contracts with United Express partners already in place, isn't United heading in the direction of giving up a lot of domestic flying?

Yeah, UA business travelers would love that open seating/no FC thing. Also, cheating is rampant at WN...check out the thread on how many people are getting blue armbands in order to board early (ostensibly due to some disability that WN personnel can't inquire about).

No thank you.

Or change the belief system to something more rational and materialistic.
Is it as bad as on LH? Where anyone who knows someone who once had an injury gets to board with group zero?

The chance of this happening is extremely unlikely as the companies have two completely different business models.