gengar

It's curious that in so many of these earnings threads, UA's customers and potential customers have to respond to flippant accusations that they should not care how the company is performing. Perhaps it says quite a lot about the arguments and intention of those who make these accusations if that's what they have to resort to. The reality is that every customer who enters a long-term relationship with a company has a vested interest in the company's success - and most airlines, by design, engage customers in long-term relationships via frequent flyer programs.

I'll also add the point I've made in past threads: With just three majors left, I'd argue that all FF's here in the USA have a vested interest in all of them achieving financial success, so long as it's for the right reasons.

FlyWorld

I have flown UA twice this year. In both cases, I got dark planes in one direction. That means 50% of the UA flights I flew had dark planes. In my view, 50% is not remote.

jetsetEWR

Sample size of 4.

HNLbasedFlyer

Hmmm, only on Flyertalk when you make over a BILLION dollars in net profit you are considered squandered.

channa

No, not just FlyerTalk. United's underperformance has been noticed by many.

HNLbasedFlyer

Not by the stock market. They made a BILLION dollars in net profit.

Underperform??? We could all hope to underperform like that.

Do ANY analysts rate them as underperform or sell?

fly18725

Yes, there are many who are disappointed and must reconsider their long term relationship with United because PRASM growth is slower than Delta's. Oh, the horror!

channa

I'm not sure you understand these concepts.

They're supposed to have a billion in synergies due to the merger alone (or that's at least what they promised). Where's the profit above and beyond that? And why is it substantially less than DL?

As for analysts and underperform ratings, I suggest you read up on that. UAL as a stock probably has more upside than the other carriers, specifically due to UA's underperformance. If they right the ship, there stands to be more gain in UAL stock.



Well, the first year or so after the merger, I thought UA's underperformance was funny. The HouCrew was in there and learning on the job -- I figured they'd take a haircut and turn it around quickly.

But I was wrong. Between the blue smoke and gold mirrors, they kept at it. Now that the underperformance has been sustained, it's not funny anymore. Remember the two carriers that formed this mess both had strong revenue performance. The two combined should have been top dog. But since they squandered so many of their strengths, they're in this situation where they're now constantly underperforming their competitors.

HNLbasedFlyer

Really, why does ANY airline need to have more than a BILLION in profit? How is that good for the flying public and industry??

Why would UAL care what DAL makes? They should care what UAL makes and focus on that. They had a great quarter as reflected by the market.

channa

Any company should watch what competitors make. It gives them how they do relative to that competitor (are they outperforming, doing about the same, or underperforming) so they can focus efforts accordingly.


Huh?

The market cap of DL is $42 billion; AA is $40 billion; and UA is $27 billion.

While UA's market cap has been improving, it's still an outlier well below AA/DL.

Longboater

When AAL reports their 4Q and full year results, they'll be putting UAL to shame. Say what you want about Parker, he knows how to run a consistently profitable airline. He also realizes his past mistakes, the most important of which is the reservation system switch over. US Airways used to use SABRE and switched to SHARES with the American West merger. As many of y'all remember, it was initially a mess. Parker and Co. eventually got their act together and US Airways did very well financially and on-time percentage wise over the past several years. Unlike United/Continental, the superior reservation system will survive. With US Airways past usage of SABRE is included, the switch over will be nothing like 3/3 and will probably resemble Delta/Northwest's reservation systems merger back in January, 2010. Until United dumps SHARES and moves to the eventual Star Alliance reservation system, the airline will continue to have a revenue problem.

HNLbasedFlyer

Stock is at 5+ year high - who cares what the market cap is unless someone wants to buy them.

bseller

You're not showing a strong grasp of the concept of RELATIVE value here my friend.

Dave

HNLbasedFlyer

I get it - don't worry. If your market cap is lower than others in the market that are comparable you have way more upside. Super high market caps have more limited upside.

FWAAA

Repeating the oft-repeated falsehood that UA has always attracted lower yields than its peers won't make it true, no matter how many times it's repeated. Let's introduce some facts.

Most recently, UA bested AA in mainline yield in 2011. Before that, in 2008, UA also bested AA in mainline yield:

UA 2011: 14.29 cents
AA 2011: 14.19

UA 2008: 13.89
AA 2008: 13.74

Obviously, AA's mainline yield pulled ahead of UA in 2012 as UA's integration problems began, and UA has been unable to catch up since.