DL expands SEA further with SEA-SFO flights

[Kev3188]

You really just can't help yourself, can you?
 
It's only a race in your mind...

 

[WorldTraveler]

are you kidding?

I said 10 years ago that DL would be in the position it is in today... and I got kicked off of a.net for sticking to my point to the great consternation of the fAAnclub on there and showing why other carriers wouldn't be able to do what DL is doing... and the evidence overwhelming supports that.

So, yes, it is a race and I am tickled pink at how well my horse is doing.

 

[Kev3188]

These boards are a race in your mind alone. 
 
But help us out a little; what's really at stake here? What's on the other side of the checkered flag for you?

 

[WorldTraveler]

victory, my friend, victory.

total elimination of all of the enemy.

please, please, please take that as the joke it was intended to be.

do you play any competitive sports, video games, the stock market?

 

[Kev3188]

All jokes have an undercurrent of truth.
 
Based on your patterns of behavior both here and A.net, I really think you believe that...
 
And like another user noted, sure you might get to claim victory in the end, but it'll be in an empty room, and will seem silly.
 
Have a good time.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I'm having fun now.... and I have a crowd. thanks for being a part of it.

 

[Kev3188]

You have a crowd all right, but for all the wrong reasons.

 

[WorldTraveler]

a crowd is a crowd is a crowd.

you are reading what I am writing- and better yet engaging in conversation.

Apparently both of us are getting some satisfaction out of the process... and I still prefer to converse with you over other people on here by a country mile.

 

[eolesen]

a crowd is a crowd is a crowd.

"Hurray, they're all cheering for me!!!" said the gladiator as he walked into the arena...

 

[traderjake]

"Hurray, they're all cheering for me!!!" said the gladiator as he walked into the arena...

 
 
 
Do you always confuse gladiators and clowns?

 

[eolesen]

You may have a point.

1) The clown is there by choice
2) the clown walks away after he's made a fool of himself
3) the clown gets to strip out of his makeup and costume, and resume his somewhat normal life with few people recognizing him
4) people tend to have an unexplained fear of clowns, not gladiators

One big difference is that WT really does appear to think he has to win.
Clowns rarely win. But rarely do the gladiators.

 

[WorldTraveler]

did you have too much to drink on the flight home....?

whether you want to admit it or not, you have been as hellbent on winning against me as long as we have interacted on this forum.

the difference between me and you is that I have been accurate over and over about key issues in the industry while you have allowed your loyalty to AA and your hatred for DL (largely driven by my loyalty to them) to cloud your opinions so many times that it isn't really that hard to prove you wrong.

DL's SEA expansion is yet one more example where you spoke frequently that DL would not be able to do what they have done so far, let alone what they will continue to do; that AA would be AS' savior; and that DL will win yet another strategic confrontation with another carrier that has decided to get in the way of what DL decided it needed to accomplish.

Carry on with the clowns and gladiators routine if it helps you forget that on yet another issue we parted ways and I chose the road that has resulted in another win for DL.

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

Alaska outlines how it plans to do battle in Seattle
 
http://airchive.com/blog/2014/03/19/alaska-airlines-outlines-how-it-plans-to-battle-delta-in-seattle/

 

[WorldTraveler]

of course AS is going to do battle.

no one expects they will sit by and not fight for their market.

that page has been linked on here before but to reiterate, investors' number one question for AS is what DL is doing to AS. They aren't asking the same question to DL. DL is disproportionately impacting AS compared to what AS is doing to DL and everyone understands it. The failure of AS mgmt. to provide any meaningful assurance of what AS can do to fight back is most striking.

They are largely rendered powerless as long as DL can continue to expand at SEA, and DL has affirmed once again that it has the ability to continue to grow in SEA, despite the assertions that many made that DL would run out of gates.

AS may have lower costs but that only matters if DL intends to compete directly across AS' network for the same number of passengers. DL will connect a large number of passengers to its own int'l flights which AS does not operate. DL doesn't need to have the same costs because it won't compete for the same discount passenger that AS now serves.

Further, SEA is not an ideal hub for domestic connecting traffic. Every other mainline carrier hub can serve most markets more efficiently than AS does over SEA and that inefficiency requires having lower costs in order to be able to compete.

DL is currently AS' largest interline partner and AS has long acknowledged that both sides have contractual requirements to continue to feed each other, exactly what DL needs to fill out the smaller markets that it will not serve from SEA.

AS also cannot compete in the int'l markets to the same degree that DL does because AS has antitrust immunity with no foreign carriers and thus has to allocate seats on the same basis to each of them - blind to their revenue specific needs while DL can operate an integrated domestic and int'l hub.
Since there are a number of large corporate accounts in SEA, DL has the ability to offer the volume discounts that neither AS or any of its other partners can offer.

AS has made a huge strategic miscalculation in rebuffing DL's invitation to work with DL to feed DL's int'l flights. History will show that DL will achieve its strategic objectives in the Pacific NW while AS will have permanently lost many of the advantages it once had.

 

[Kev3188]

Translation: "Resistance is futile."