[losteric]

Some people are just irrationally biased against mergers - on my last flight, the couple next to me could not stop blaming the merger for us leaving SFO 5 minutes late, even when we arrived at SEA on time. It was Friday at 7PM, heavy travel time for SFO-SEA.

I try to fly Alaska everywhere too - never had a bad experience, on-time every time.

[tsunamifury]

Ugly old planes, sub par soft and hard product. Walmart level quality brand etc. the basics work, but everything else is crap.

Virgin was he king of American airline quality and raised the bar for the whole industry.

[Aloha]

The oldest part of their fleet are B734's of which they have 5 (plus I think some Combi's which only service Alaska) all of those are due to be gone by the end of 2017. The rest of their fleet is B737/B738/B739's - all but 30 are B738/B739's.

In fact among legacy carriers Alaska has the youngest fleet age of any of them. Alaska also has excellent on-time and baggage performance - among the best, if not the best in the industry.

[losteric]

Your first paragraph sums up my experience with Virgin. Hollow flimsy plastic walls, useless seatback displays, uncomfortable seats, tacky college dorm mood lights, horrid customer service, heck most flights don't even offer snacks... I try to avoid them whenever possible.

[seizethecheese]

They're aggressively updating their planes. My last couple of flights have been on brand new ones.

[brightball]

Alaska and Delta are my favorite airlines by a mile. Quality and reliability every time.

[ouid]

It is not irrational to be biased against mergers. The couple seated next to you were just dumb.