MSPeconomist

It's also apparently the same as DL's FC snack basket. Sometimes it's passed by the FC FA so one suspects that it's literally the same snack basket rather than having catering load a separate one specifically for C+ passengers.

Karl-MDW

I got it too.

Following Delta...again? Premium Y cabin?

What looks like a good idea at first quickly loses its appeal for me.

United is currently making my premier benefits less meaningful by selling them or by giving them away to others.

Now they want to sell whatever else they can - and will eventually push frequent flyers further away.

Will the up sell ever end?

I just bought a Delta ticket and I resisted the upsell there. I will do my best to avoid the possible future UA upsell too.

Just get me there (almost) on time for the fare I pay.

goodeats21

I noticed this as well, for both EQM and RDM. They gave a price, but no indication of how many miles for the cost.

A couple of further thoughts:

The Baggage Valet seems an open invitation for theft. Carry-on is typically where the valuable items go (versus checked baggage anyway). I guess a roller board full of laundry would be OK, but no way I would hand over anything else.

I also noted a choice about a "Trip Pass" for the United Club, where you would prepay for access to a United Club for every portion of your trip. Departure airport/layover airport/arrival airport.
I got an internal chuckle of how United would bungle the implementation of this in irrops.

I also am concerned about the dilution of elite benefits with all these add-ons. Will someone purchasing "weather protection" benefit get higher priority on re-booking then 1k? GS?
I guess on the plus side, it provides some dis-incentive for United to continue the practice of calling every delay weather-related.

drowelf

For what its worth, here are my comments on these offerings.

Yeah, right. I'm going to let my carry-on's out of my control. Is that not a TSA violation? What happens when you board the plane and its not there?

Don't we already get all that as 1K? Sounds like your gambling on a weather delay here. Wonder what would be the lead time window for buying this. Day of Travel?

Don't use their WiFi now, don't think I would if it was free anyway. I like being disconnected on flights. I tend to get more work done anyway.

This one actually looks interesting. Would love to see more details. Don't really want a wider seat, but would like more pitch even in E+. In E+ if the person in front reclines more than 1/2 way, I can't get my laptop open enough to get any work done.


If the food is not free, I'm not buying. Its all overpriced.

I don't drink and end up giving all my chits away anyway.

Maybe ....

LOL

huh? Why?

Now this is the service for over-entitle elites.

CO_Nonrev_elite

The sad thing is that service quality has become so bad, that anyone expecting anything other than being ignored, disrespected and late is treated as if they are over-entitled on this forum.

PushingTin

With high load factors, the incentives for airlines to cater to Y-buying FF is greatly reduced. The issue I see, for corporate traveler is the fee structure and bundling it in with the ticket.

I like the idea of a real premium Y, but if it coded differently then a lot of business travelers won't get their companies to pay for it- and people aren't going to pay for it themselves. I'd rather have E+ complementary than have a true PY that I can't upgrade to. I don't do E-. If it comes to that I go full mercenary.

Anyway, till corporate America figures out a way for employees to be able to expense these, I see a real problem.

Our current system doesn't allow me to add on any kind of E+, so I am double loyal to UA since the system does take my status and let me pick E+.

All this is an experiment until the next dip in corporate and leisure travel and the load factors go down, then Smisek will be offering to carry my bags thru the terminal for free.

StingWest

Of all of these, a true Premium Economy seat is the most interesting to me, esp for those long international flights. And yes, I would pay more to have a little room at my sides - maybe 30-40% more than coach, a la Virgin Atlantic.

goodeats21

Anyone else see the irony?

UA becoming a "2-cabin airline", but then investigating another cabin.

Seems like we are going back to the old system...

Best cabin is lie flat,
middle cabin is a recliner,
and worst cabin is a worse version of the old economy.

StingWest

Good one!

mgobluetex

Please, as if the UCs aren't crowded enough. Sure let's let a few thousand more people per day at each airport have access to fight over the few dilapidated seats that already occupy the UCs.

JBord

It is the most interesting but it depends on the price point. If it's not significantly more to buy business, I'd do that anyway.

The assumption I make is that adding these seats reduce C/F seats, and also reduce demand as more people may be satisfied with Prem Econ. I wonder what that would do for pricing on both products?

MSPeconomist

Traditionally, carriers have been afraid to introduce Premium Economy because they fear that it will cannibalize sales of domestic FC or international business class tickets.

Donlongco

I received the survey and it just seems if you have the money you can buy same things 1k use to get.

One of the buy third get 45% off was buy a drink, get wifi and get FC for 83 bucks. Good luck getting any upgrades if that model goes through.

Down to 40% success rate on upgrades now.

StingWest

Yes, it's a balancing act for sure. To figure out the right balance it would be necessary to know on average what percentage of Business seats are paid and how many are upgrades. If they are mostly paid, then yes, offering a PE seat might take some of that away. Virgin Atlantic routinely sells out PE - and the fare seems to be about 30-35% higher than Economy, whereas they sell Upper Class (business) at roughly the same price as UA, ie much higher than PE. Virgin's PE cabin is not very big compared to their economy, so maybe they're leaving some money on the table. Who knows?

PushingTin

Hell, a good test would be for long TPACs have middle E+ left empty by design. That makes a huge difference, and you could test out the concept. I think Air New Zealand does something like this.

I'm all about the elbow room...

I know they want to give it a sexy name like "Premium Economy", but I think they might be able to get more people, basically the international business traveler whose company will never spring for J, to buy a Y+ product if it's named something less.. exotic.

Roadwarrior Economy
Middle-management Economy
Employee-retention Economy
My-boss-is-upfront Economy