fishy21

Thoughts???


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vir...ort-2015-02-18

N830MH

Wow! Another new routes, huh? Lucky you! Can we see DAL-ORD or FLL?

apbailey

This seems like a very short route: 200 miles. Is southwest killing it between those airports? 5 flights a day worth?

bayhouse

Southwest offers ~10 nonstop flights a day between DAL and AUS. Looking at their schedule, many of their flights are completely sold out a few days in advance. So, it sounds like there's demand for the route. 5x a day might be a little much, but if VX launched it with fewer frequencies, they'd hardly stand a chance against 10x by Southwest.

There's the commonly stated benefit that there's no premium service between DAL and AUS, but I think that's not particularly important because it matters less for such a short flight.

More importantly, VX has stated that Austin has been very successful. Currently, they only fly to SF with a few west coast connections. By adding 5 short feeder flights into DAL, it effectively connects Austin to the rest of their network -- especially DCA, LGA, and LAX -- with short, frequent, and well timed connections. Currently, there's only infrequent poorly timed connections involving AUS-SFO-West Coast. So it swiftly expands route access ex-AUS, where VX has had pretty rapid success. It also adds another feeder into DAL, which will likely improve the DAL-LAX/SFO/DCA/LGA routes as well.

N830MH

No, they won't be killing it. I think they will kept it as long they can have enough more competitions. Yes, sounds like a very short flight, but it wasn't too bad at all.

WheelsFirst

I'd like to see VX on LAX/AUS but there's a ton of competition on that route.

SJC ORD LDR

It seems like a LAX - SJC thing to me. A short route with a lot of competition where VX's product advatages do not make much of a difference (IFE, First Class).

Eastbay1K

But it could be a good aircraft utilization situation - a quick turn where a plane might otherwise be sitting too long due to scheduling, etc.

formeraa

This! :-:

psa727

Booked this last night. Even though VX does not serve MCI (yet, if ever), I am taking another airline into DAL and flying with VX the next day. I have flown VX once, from LAX to SFO and back, so I am looking forward to this and hopefully getting more VX flights in future. Them and Alaska seem to be the best things going right now.

eponymous_coward

http://crankyflier.com/2015/02/23/wh...-austin-route/

VegasGambler

VX is a better experience than Southwest. I think that that's how they compete. If people try them a few times they will not be back to Southwest.

This is what happened with me on my SFO-LAS flights. I was a loyal Southwest customer, although I was annoyed with how things had been going lately (literally, 10 round trip flights in a year, and not a single segment was on time). I wanted to fly on a day when only Business Select was available on Southwest, and when I checked VX I saw that their F fares were cheaper than Southwest Business Select. So I grabbed a VX F seat. After that flight, I knew that I would never be back to Southwest. I immediately cashed out all my Southwest pts to Amazon GCs and status matched to VX. I was only one flight away from renewing my Southwest status as well -- I didn't care. I will never fly that sorry excuse for an airline again.

The funny thing was, about 2 weeks later, I got a letter from some high-up customer service person as Southwest apologizing for their shoddy on-time performance and promising to do better. Too little, too late.

eponymous_coward

Funny thing is, I've flown both to LAS. WN wins for me, hands down. Ever seen what happens to connecting flights through SFO when there's an ATC hold? Now compare to an SEA-LAS nonstop...

N830MH

Can we see more new city? PHX? DEN? SLC? RNO? ATL? TPA? MIA? JAX?

eponymous_coward

From DAL? Not unless they get some new gates. Which is not bloody likely given that DAL is gate capped.