Delta One Lounge Seattle Opening Summer 2025: What To Expect

DL gets average fares comparable to AS up and down the west coast and to Hawaii; AS has an average fare advantage to Alaska.

DL is obviously a higher cost airline overall but uses a disproportionate amount of new generation aircraft to/from SEA because of the longer stage lengths.
Thus, it is hard to argue that AS is more profitable just because they are lower cost.

and let's also not forget that AS for years had lower profit margins than DL. AS loves to tout how it has better profit margins than the US legacy carriers but that average is heavily pulled down by AA.

Also, DL pushes a lot lower percentage of connecting traffic through SEA - it is largely a hub to Alaska and across the Pacific.

DL and UA have 3 hubs in the western US - SEA, LAX and SLC and LAX, SFO, and DEN respectively. AS is talking about making PDX into a hub to allow more local traffic through SEA but otherwise, SEA is maxed out on capacity.

I'm glad you are having a serious discussion about the incessant DL vs AS comparison and DL SEA assertions.

All I want is for the people that make those claims about DL's to tell us not just where AA, UA and WN all lose money - if they believe DL loses money in SEA - or tell us how DL managed to figure out how to build 4 megaprofitable hubs while AA and UA have not done the same during the same nearly 50 years of deregulation that the rest of the industry has had.

Ben,
the "megaprofitable" characterizations of DL's core 4 hubs is in response to those that continually assert that DL makes so much money from ATL, DTW, MSP and SLC that it can afford to lose money at BOS, NYC, LAX and SEA. While the assertions of DL losing money at BOS, NYC and LAX are not as strong as they once were and relative to SEA, the point is still the same.

There are a host of people that can't answer the question as to where AA and US lose money - or make a whole lot less than DL does in its hubs - and yet it is DL that has grown and expanded 4 coastal hubs while AA has shifted its focus to its southern hubs and still can't get above 2% net margins while UA trails DL in profitability and will in the 4th quarter of 2024 and for 2024 as a whole.

Let's also not forget that DL had the Crowdstrike mess in the 3rd quarter and still outperformed UA financially and all of DL's employees are at the top of the industry while UA has large chunks of its workforce that have amendable labor contracts.

SEA is the only hub where DL is not the largest but DL clearly is in a far better niche position of its own than AA is at ORD or DL was at DFW when it had a hub there - or B6 is at BOS or JFK where DL is the largest carrier at both airports. or AS at SFO. Two carrier hubs are always intensely difficult but DL has a formula for SEA built around its global scale which AS is not going to be able to match any time soon if ever.

feel free to tell us the penetration of AA, DL and UA loyalty programs and cards at their "monopoly hubs" or where they have the majority of traffic. I doubt very seriously that AS has any higher share of cobrand cards - but since AS is essentially a one hub airline, it is pretty easily to isolate SEA's performance.

and Anthony is right and you know it. DL didn't invent the loyalty program or the cobrand card but it has executed both far better than its competitors. Same was true about domestic AVOD and WiFi. DL has done some things like walking away from small RJs and going for a small mainline airline before other airlines but somehow manages to outstrategize its competitors.

And part of DL's profit advantage is from its ability to manage costs through a more efficient workforce (DL has about 6000 less employees than UA and tens of thousands less than AA and the argument about wholly owned regional carriers and maintenance outsourcing doesn't explain it). DL went after the refinery and it has saved DL billions of dollars at some times but is contributing little to DL's bottom line now; it exists solely to reduce DL's airline costs. DL's MRO business is also not contributing much now because there aren't enough parts to fix new technology engines - the heart of DL's MRO business - but that will add billions of dollars in revenue within a few years.

And as much as UA and you love to talk about UA's huge international network, it does not come anywhere close to supporting the size of a credit card deal that DL has. AA just signed on to one that will deliver what DL has but AA's will likely take much longer and still not match DL's. The domestic market is simply where cobrand cards deliver the highest value which is why UA is trying so hard to grow its domestic system outside of its hubs - where AA, DL and WN are all strong and where none are going to give up market share.

ATL is probably the world's most profitable hub at least on an ASM basis and certainly the most profitable in the US but the nonsense that DL's core 4 hubs make all the money and DL's coastal hubs are all money losers is not only patently false but defies logic including as to why AA and UA haven't figured out how to drive that kind of profitability in their hubs.
DL does say its core 4 hubs generate the majority of its profits but its 4 coastal hubs are not necessarily unprofitable.

In fact, there is a pretty good argument that SEA is not unprofitable for DL because if it was, there would be a pretty good case of predatory activity against DL by AS - but they have never asserted that.

SEA could still be less profitable than ATL or DTW or... but be as profitable as AA is on its system - and likely profitable where clearly some of AA's hubs lose money. UA, despite saying its hubs all make money, does not have super performing hubs despite what their fans love to say about how great their hubs are.

DL might have a wider range of profitability in its hubs but they have figured out how to generate high levels of profits on a system wide basis as well as have the global size and scale (which does include domestic) that supports industry-leading non-transportation revenue.

maybe the non-sense about DL's profitability or lack thereof in some hubs will end sometime but I don't intend to go anywhere as long as some people make statements to that effect.

we realize you have a short attention span, but, yes, I did answer the question.

reread and you will see that the myths about unprofitability of DL's SEA and other coastal hubs and excess profitability of its "core 4" hubs doesn't consider DL's non-transportation revenue including the Amex deal. Again, DL didn't invent the loyalty program or cobrand card but it has managed to execute both far better than any of its competitors.

as for AS' very generous loyalty program, they are already pulling back on some aspects and will do even more as they roll out a single FF program.

and corporate contracts and revenue are not tied to loyalty programs. DL's success is its ability to get corporate revenue and, as much as AS wants to have a piece of that, they are a very long way from coming close to challenging DL in the international and eastern US markets which DL either dominates or has a substantial advantage.

DL will clearly have to come up w/ a few more strategies but the notion that AS will bulldoze DL out of SEA has been voiced for the nearly 10 years since DL made SEA a hub; the latest version of it is no more likely to become reality just because AS decides to add a few international flights in highly competitive markets with a product that will be inferior to everyone in the market for years to come.