bob_the_d

haha that interview. well at least he's honest.

Baze

Yes.

hockey7711

Coming from an over-entitled elite, I would have to say he is right... for a change.
Get rid of the GF now and make some space in the BF cabin!
Enough of this 6 across on the 777 and 763.

Pi7473000

The new United, modeled after CO is not a premium airline anymore. GF worked well at PMUA as it sought premium travelers and provided them with a differentiated service, even down to the ticket color. Today, The new UA resembles CO which was bland airline which service that was not premium. Hopefully if they get rid of F they will improve business as it is not premium feeling today. It is too bad to see United moving away from 3 classes as it was one of the reasons I flew them for years. I guess I will just fly American, Lufthansa, British Airways who still find value in F. I was hoping to here them make the 787s 3 classes as the J product on them does not feel premium in a 2-2-2 lay payout for 11-14 hr. Flights to Asia and Australia.

Marin 1K

I paid. And as I noted in my post, it was an A fare, which was less than the cheapest UA business class fare; LH virtually never offers A fares SFO-FRA. If I was paying F, which between my firm (of which I am the principal) and I privately have done >100 times, I certainly would have booked LH, with whom I have flown over 500,000 BIS miles.

Marin 1K

Originally Posted by rankourabu View Post
Of course it matters!
I am asking who in their right mind would spend their own money on United GF. The premise being if you have enough money for F, who would buy United?

Are you saying that paying with OPM vs paying your own money, you would behave the same when making purchasing decisions?




+1

TonyBurr

Very, very true. Fly SQ, LH, NH, etc and see a real First Class.

Sykes

I have several customers who occasionally pay for GF out of their own pockets. They generally fall into two categories:

1) GF was cheaper than BF -- this happens more frequently than one might expect with P-up, Z-up, and D-up fares for some markets.

2) They have substantial amounts of domestic travel where UA is a necessary evil, and the GS program is the only thing that makes it remotely tolerable.

I'll also add that relative comfort, privacy, and ability to fly nonstop rather than connecting are all far more important than food or other soft product considerations. I'm intensely skeptical that meaningful investment in soft product would pay dividends on any but a small subset of premium routes (which is why AA is ripping First Class out of all but a small handful of the fleet).

Edited to add: improving Business Class (across the board), on the other hand, is something I firmly believe in.

kevanyalowitz

Do you pay for BF, or do you just upgrade into it? By the same logic, why would anyone pay for BF if a foreign carrier is available?

This.

BearX220

With the current management, part of "running the airline like a business" is the implicit view that branding and brand marketing are stupid, frivolous concerns -- a policy endorsed by some who post on this board, who have argued that branding has no influence on purchase decisions and people choose based on price or price/schedule.

But I don't think UA has the service culture to pull off the soft aspects of a true international F proposition anyway. It is not true that F doesn't matter. It is more true that, in the global airline competition, UA itself no longer matters.

mahasamatman

Smisek and Rainey - Masters of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

sogboulder

To me, the most telling thing in the interview is the point where he says that United had a 3-class fleet, while "we" had a 2-class fleet. Looks to me as though the merger integration problems start in the C-suite.

harryhood

^^My company pays for my travel in J and, when fares allow (like when F is cheaper than J), F. But given the need to manage an expense budget and the need to be vested in my business, I would not go far at my company if I did not treat the company's money as if it were my own.

LASUA1K

This is exactly the problem. People always wonder why we still say sUA and sCO. The higher ups think everything "they" did was
Wrong compared to how "we" did it.

This management team is clueless and very out of touch. It amazes me.

cesco.g

Great observation!
One more on the subject of "merger of equals" .......