"John R. Levine" wrote:
World Airways used to do that JFK-LAX. Didn't last.

Something big has changed since then. In the 80s and 1990s, Frequent
Flyier loyalty was extreme. But at one point, the price difference
between the low cost carriers and the legacy carriers eroded that
loyalty, allowing people to choose their airline, instead of always
blindly buying from "their" airline.

Once you give up on FF programmes, you're willing to choose the carrier
that offers the best schedukle/plane/service/price/whatever, then a
carrier that offers a cheaper flight from new york to lax would have a
chance now, whereas it stood no chance before.