StingWest

That's an interesting idea - the person on each side would have to pay 50% more though to make it pay in this scenario. But for the test, they could try different PE price points. I wouldn't be willing to pay 50% extra, but I can and do pay 30% extra when I fly Virgin At.

escapefromphl

It's effectively already that business model.

Garten

It seems silly to me to fly with empty seats. I would pay way more for a 1.5 wider seat than I would pay just for having an empty seat next to me.

Premium Economy on international flights would make a lot of sense to me, although personally it might be bad for me because it would increase the cost and decrease the availability of Business/First.

PushingTin

Seats are irrelevant, it all about the revenue - and I don't think that they care if it messes up the pricing model in the future for next year.

The only strategy AA/DL/UA have is how keep the flights turning the most revenue aided by consolidation and keeping foreign competitors out. Even WN is on board, for anything approaching acceptable service to a FF, they are often more expensive than UA on the routes I look at.

What they don't realize is that when load factors fall, the prices they can get for these bumps will dry up. Their only hope is for oligarchy pricing at that point.

jtet

Well, the Lufthansa short haul first is just that - a blocked out middle seat as shown in the seat map for an A321: http://www.lufthansa.com/mediapool/p..._530973332.pdf

I like the talk of a premium economy product with wider seats - say a 3-2 configuration on a 737. But for international travel I'm not so sure. This becomes a matter of perspective. I can understand the enthusiasm of those whose company won't pay for C. But as one whose company does pay for C for international travel, I fear that a premium economy may cause a policy change and downgrade us to that level. Naturally if I am traveling on my own dime, a premium economy at a reasonable price point is pretty attractive - particularly since it would typically be me plus the family, not just me alone.

As for "stealing" business from E-, that's easy: Make up for the 2-3 setup in premium economy by going from 3-3 in E- to 4-3! Put in them 15.5" wide seats and crawl over three people to get from window to aisle! Now, to keep the FT crowd happy, we'd just leave E+ as-is with the 3-3 layout.

exerda

Although a real premium economy product would be nice to have... it would most likely mean a regular Y ticket can only be upgraded to premium economy. Want C? Book premium economy first (almost certainly at a higher price than W!) and play the lottery...

dmodemd

I would also expect a new Premium Economy with wider seats, possible footrests, and treated as a separate class. Elites booked into Y may get comp upgrades to Y+ but if you want upgrade to C/F it will be from paid Y+.

transportbiz

Cool, so DL copies VX, and then UA copies DL. The primary issue remains, all these enhancements, you're still arriving late at least 20% of the time. So, something creative for UA to add: Insurance against late arrival, oh, wait you mean the customer expects this already...dang, they are just so demanding.

relangford

Same here. Also, the costs were slightly different in the 9 different scenarios. It seems UA wants to see the breakpoint for paying for these things in order to increase prices (and even say that loyal elite flyers WANTED these changes since they replied to a survey). I, too, was intrigued by the "Premium Economy" option which implied a "real" premium economy seat like on foreign airlines.

tromer

What I found most amusing was the assumption that United would be in any way capable of delivering these services. They are already quite poor at almost all aspects of basic airline service; perhaps they should work on that before adding more ways in which they can underperform. I had to laugh thinking of all the additional refunds they would fail to process.

Garten

Yeah. I've flown in this once or twice. But I think it's pretty ridiculous. I definitely would not like to see it adopted here.

jtet

Agreed. The middle seat being blocked out just isn't the same as a wider seat. The only true difference is in the soft product. I still remember a flight from Madrid - the FA was just so thrilled that I had chosen to fly Lufhansa that day. It just seemed to make her day that I was flying on her aircraft and she had the opportunity to serve me dinner (I'm an ordinary guy, nothing special about me!) . I just have not had anythign close that experience on United, and I've flown every class from domestic E- to Global First. To be fair, my other flights on LH have had good service but not at the level of that one!

drowelf

And its not just short-haul. We did Lufthansa Frankfurt -> Cario a couple of years ago. The First Class was simply the normal 3-across with the middle seat blocked with a tray table.

HeadInTheClouds

AA was doing this a couple years back (don't know if they still are, haven't been there in a while), and I was using it quite a bit. I really liked the option.

ConnFlyer

True, but how much of that 20% delay is UA's fault? UA can't control the weather and UA can't control FAA/air traffic control.

I like the idea of Y+ especially for some of the "shorter" international long-hauls. I don't really need a lie flat bed for IAD-LHR, but a slightly bigger seat would be nice. Of course, the problem is whether companies would actually pay for Y+ as a separate (more expensive) class of service. If the answer is no (or if companies that currently pay for C downgrade folks to Y+), then I don't see the math working in UA's favor.