Yup, and we would have had to build up LAX, buy some airplanes, and done some hiring. Eeeekk.

Is Alaska just a stopgap until we do move out and expand on the west coast or is their no real economic benefit there to warrant a DAL mainline expansion with SWA and Alaska running so strong?

I see no economic benefit for DAL to buy aircraft to cover the West coast. The AS code share is quite comprehensive and in essence allows DAL the ability to use AS as much as they want. When I look at what we code share on, there are no major gaps in coverage.
The only possibility would be for them to bring AS in house. Now on that regard, I see this as a very real possibility.

Too bad. You missed out on some good and interesting flying. The people are friendly and much of the country is actually beautiful. Downtown Potosi, for example, is one of the prettiest towns in Mexico. So is Guanajuato (sp?). Sure, there are some places to avoid, like MEX, but overall I enjoyed the trips down there.

And as for hassle, the only one was going back through customs in IAH. And that's no different than waiting for a gate in EWR.

I don't know. It seemed like most of the pilots who knocked Mexico had either never been down there or were afraid of going down there.

I see you're a codeshare fan and from a strictly business perspective it makes sense. More so in my opinion if it is somewhere you can not easily operate for some reason. Alaska flying on the other hand is basically a carbon copy of what DL purchased with Western and rapidly dismantled to "protect" Atlanta.

My point is that's the one area this company could have grown Delta jobs to smooth out this transition. Codeshare is just giving away your flying and the jobs that go with it and a big reason why the JPWA needed to be sent back for rework IMO. The DL brand still will basically not exist for West Coast customers.

I liked Leon(which I think is Guanjana whatever), Oaxaca(Before they revolted), Torreon, Ixtapa, and Cabo. The last two were resorts, but the first three were quiet areas. Nice cheap food, good beer, and relaxation. Now Mexico City, hated it.

I have been down there alot and was definitely not afraid of it. I just avoided the overnights. I did turns all the time. Being IAH based, you couldn't really avoid them. I didnt mind flying down there and back. I just prefered not overnighting down there. Some overnights were nice but some werent. I stuck with the good overnights down there. To each their own but I preferred the Canada overnights personally.

Exactly, those were the decent ones. The others were the ones with shady van rides and humid damp hotels.

The QRO overnight was the worst. Great hotel, but the overnight was planned at 8:12, with 40 mins. each way to/from the hotel. Miserable.

The one thing about Mexico was that there were like 8 rampers waiting on you, 1 for each tire to chalk it, 1 to marshal, 1 to monitor, 2 wing walkers and some beauty to oversee it all. IAH was like 2 guys to the plane and screw you for making us come out. Of course in EWR you just needed to take the initative and park yourself at the gate. But I left 3 years ago, it might be different now.