I've flown a couple of million miles on several airlines (United, America, Delta) and fly Virgin America whenever possible.  There hasn't been an airline merger that resulted in an airline with a better product and there is no reason to believe that this one is going to be the exception.  Alaska Air paid to get Virgin America for 2 reasons.  Virgin's prices were keeping fares down on lucrative routes so now they can raise prices plus they get control of landing slots/gates in east coast airports (e.g., JFK, LGA, DCA, DAL) that they couldn't get into otherwise.  Nothing will remain of Virgin by the time Alaska Air is done with them and Virgin's customers will simply leave Alaska Air.  All of that said, I'd be happy to be proven wrong.