Originally Posted by
CO 1E
With respect to alignment, I always assume that carriers will align in the least favorable direction. So, rather than CO making all fares eligible for 100% EQM's, I would assume that UA will go to 50% EQM's for lower fares.
I don't know about that. UA's hubs are in much more competitive environments than CO's, so CO can afford to get away with more than UA. CO has a stronghold on EWR, IAH, and CLE while UA has direct hub competition at LAX (AA/DL), DEN (F9) and ORD (AA).
As a result, UA has to be more sensitive to its Elite travellers, as they can more easily lose them. If you live in IAH, you're pretty much stuck on CO, no matter what they do to you (hence the 50% EQM rule on CO).
Originally Posted by
craz
I wonder when CO will be announcing a E+ cabin, after all if you want to be like UA be like them. Oh my mistake CO only wants to be like UA/US when its to COs benefit and a E+ wont be, it would be a benefit only to Us passengers so need for CO to go do it.
E+ can be considered a revenue generator. UA generated over $100 million last year on E+ buy-ups, not to mention the repeat business it generates because of customer satisfaction. People bash UA all the time, yet the UA Elites keep coming back for more. E+ is the main reason for this -- it's a tremendous fallback position in the event an upgrade fails to clear.