Originally Posted by
crjav8er
You missed the point. The most loyal VX Californian customers with high disposable income left to other airlines once the garbage product of Alaska was introduced. The economy of California is massive, and the Angle lake arrogance destroyed the chance they had of capturing California. Everything since has been a pullback to SEA and a general failure of the "Most West Coast" strategy.
All those people were flying United before and after. They have an international network and a lie-flat product between LAX/SFO and the northeast.
VA was flying low yielding east west traffic searching for the lowest internet fares. Don't let those (4) seats in the front of their airplanes fool you.
Originally Posted by
Bluetruth
jetBlue already stole the high end customers when they brought MINT to VX's hubs. The A listers switched en-mass. VX was a dead man walking and VERY lucky jetBlue was thirsty for LAX/SFO space.
Again, most A-listers are already flying someone else. There isn't enough premium traffic in most narrowbody markets to really make a difference.