Any idea about timing and what will happen to the FF points? My plan had been to cash in for a couple business seats to Australia eventually, wondering if that will be viable in a year or two.

From the cashing out point of view-definitely. Having offered a part in the IPO to frequent flyers, once the announcement hits it will definitely be time to cash out.

From the point of view of the long term viability of what differenciates VX from the others, it is a horrible time. AS is slightly better than the other legacies but that is not saying much. SFO flyers gain more flights to the PWN...and daily service to PSP...and several old 737s with no entertainment at all.

We can only speculate at this point. A buyer hasn't been formally agreed/announced yet, but even when one is, it will take a bit of time for the deal to close. And then integration will begin which also takes time. VX and AS (or B6) may be able to integrate more swiftly than the other legacies did since they are smaller, but integrating still takes some time. So my *guess* is that you will be able to redeem Virgin awards to Australia for 'a while'. In a year? iffy. In two years? Almost certainly not.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/alaska-air-nearing-deal-to-acquire-virgin-america-1459620895

Subscription required, but if you have an iPhone/iPad the full text is available through the Apple News app.

Nothing against VX, but if you really think that it is "[t]he best airline the U.S. has ever had[,]" then, IMO, you have a very short understanding of U.S. aviation.

So maybe the best airline the USA now has? It helps that the routes and cities are limited, so that the product is just better. I love VX but I only live/travel within 2-3 VX cities. If I lived in Cleveland or Houston or Nashville, it would probably be tough to use VX.

Regardless of the buyer, I'm sure that VX planes & seats & staff will stay the same. Their on-demand on-plane payment/service products will probably stay the same because margins are already good. F food/beverage and snack quality will probably become lower in quality but even Target/Costco-brand chips / nuts / chocolates are still as decent as the Dean & Deluca brand of snacks.

So what does AS do with the VX planes? AS is an all-Boeing fleet and VX an all-Airbus fleet. Do they take the path of WN and dump the planes of their acquisition target to another carrier and replace with their Boeing aircraft? I'm sure DL would be more than happy to pick up some slightly used Airbus planes.

So, IF the AS-VX tie up happens, who's going to be angrier? AS fliers who expect MVP upgrades to F and mileage earnings (as opposed to revenue earnings, if they decided to go that route)? Or VX fliers who expect the VX quality F seats (and Y seats) and will be sorely disappointed if they try on the AS F seats (or any hard/soft product for that matter)?

I doubt art direction is the primary consideration here.

There is a difference in F seats. But, for short haul flights, the current F seat is fine. Y on both airlines is a 32" pitch, though a 737 seat is an inch narrower than a 320 seat. I see very little degradation in terms of Y. Also, AS gives free snack mix to those in Y, VX gives nothing based on my experience.

Ugh.

No matter how you spin it, the VX Elevate crowd is going to be supremely disappointed if the VX experience goes away.

Trying to make AS a cool option for the SFO crowd is going to be a very difficult sell.

Compare T-2 in SFO to the zoo of SEA. At T2 SFO, I have gone from the car in the garage to standing in the plane in 12 minutes with no running. Nexus helps :D

The Q400 fleet is old and noisy. Even AC Q400's are miles better.

Expect grumpy customers coming from each airline with their expectations on service/upgrades etc.

Sad. I really like VX just the way it is. VX is my first choice, SWA second. Oh well, SWA will just get more business from me if the buyer screws up VX.

NYT saying the same thing....
 

If was believe "fox business" its b6 or the NYT and WSJ its AS. :D

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/bu...n-america.html

price said to be $2B (25% higher than close of stock on Friday), and the NY notes that AS+VX = 15% market share at SFO, and 11% at LAX.

From Alaska's standpoint, this will better allow them to compete with Delta, United, and SWA, and also make it impossible for someone to swallow them up.

It will be interesting how they meld the airlines, or if they keep them as separate brands for now.

What's everyone's thought? Are they going to dump the Virgin brand/product and rebrand as Alaska? Will be a sad day for their product innovation if that's the case.

Other option is do a:
-Qantas/Jetstar setup
-Virgin Australia/Tiger Airways setup

Full Service and Loco.

Sure it will be this. Sad indeed.