Originally Posted by
full of luv
Ironically if Alaska Air Group would have just agreed to guarantee Delta the feed it needed via code share to build a Far East hub out of Seattle, they'd probably have grown by 30% over the last few years as Delta became increasingly reliant on AK's feed. Instead they said shove off and the race is on to build a hub suitable to feed international from SEA. Probably works for mgmt's interest, but the pilots.... time will tell.
Given the amount of revenue coming in via codeshares and partnerships at that time (keep in mind, DL demanded AS sever ALL their codeshare and partner relationships and remain solely wedded to DL) the ask from DL was one that only benefited them, and would have made AS far more vulnerable to no longer being a standalone entity long-term.
While the DL relationship is now over, the organic growth alone at AS since DL entered the SEA market as a full-fledged hub operation has more than offset the loss of the DL revenue, and AS has added other partners since then, making Mileage Plan more attractive, not less.
I'd suggest that all that growth is in the best interest of everyone, pilots included. But that's just me...