Aer Lingus Gold Circle Club - EI codeshare UA on IAD-MAD?

I'm curious: how does this service come about? I never figured the Washington, D.C.-Madrid codeshare route would garner much support from UA when they could operate it themselves. All in all, doesn't this mean a lost market for UA?

Not really. The advantage for UA is that they don't have to operate it themselves. They outsource the flying to a 3rd party with cheaper costs (labour etc). UA market the route and get a cut of the revenue as do EI. It's a joint venture, rather than just a codeshare so United get quite a bit more of the cash than they do from flights they just codeshare on (e.g a US Airways flight or ANA).

It's very similar to United using smaller carriers for regional flying (SkyWest etc)

......and even more strange (IMO) is that United are now flying nonstop from DUB to IAD !!!!

If there's a market for DUB/IAD wouldn't it surely make more sense for EI to operate it themselves, like they did in the past past. Rather than doing the IAD/MAD codeshare on behalf of UA :confused:

Not really - United is using a 757 - much less capacity than EI were throwing on the route which some days were going out with ludicrously low loads. They're also doing it at the expense of the second seasonal Dublin service, so they're getting a lot of the connecting traffic they would of had on that EWR flight.

There's always a logical explanation, that just passes over my head ^

The EI IAD/MAD UA thingy strikes me a very weird though. I'm sure it raises a few eyebrows amongst those who book UA to MAD only to turn up & see they are on an EI aircraft :confused:

There's always a logical explanation, that just passes over my head ^

The EI IAD/MAD UA thingy strikes me a very weird though. I'm sure it raises a few eyebrows amongst those who book UA to MAD only to turn up & see they are on an EI aircraft :confused:

UA website clearly states "operated by Aer Lingus" Those who booked the front cabin will be pleasantly surprised :)