Originally Posted by
mrswirl
I've always wondered about that. Isn't UX out of COS mostly Skywest? I'll have to be more careful on which flights I select - not that 5 miles makes any difference at all but it's the principle mostly.
Mostly but it is changing. I don't understand why.
Mesa out of COS used be all DH2 to DEN.
More and more is CR7 to DEN and ORD. I don't think Mesa does LAX or SFO. But given that the SFO and LAX flights are usually CR2s, to blazes with principle; I'd rather have a Mesa CR7 than a Skywest CR2.
What I cannot fathom is why UA flies CR7s between DEN and COS, and CR2s between COS/SFO and COS/LAX. Fortunately they haven't sunk to CR2s between ORD/COS yet.
Originally Posted by
mrswirl
Well, Frontier is becoming more and more attractive for several reasons. Their routes are expanding and prices are usually in line if not significantly lower than UA most of the time. Plus their top-tier level is much easier to reach requiring only 25K miles or 40 segments. Of course they don't have the global reach or network like UA but that's become much less important to me since I typically do only 2-3 international trips each year. For those, I do admit being 1P really makes it bearable. I've done long-haul in E- and I wouldn't wish it on my brother-in-law.
Based out of Colo and my work being regional; most of my domestic travel involves flights of 800 miles or less so qualifying for anything beyond 2P is always a struggle. Miles are getting harder to redeem and benefits constantly slashed so I'm thinking my strategy for next year is to do the bare minimum to reach 2P and give the rest of my business to F9 and SW.
It's my kind of focus-group that UA execs would do well to listen to. It appears that their strategy is to focus soley on the long-haul business traveller at the expense of the short-haul domestic flyer - with the result that they serve neither particularly well.
Frontier looked shakier a month ago than UA, but now that the oil bubble has burst, that might improve. There still aren't enough dailies between COS and DEN for me to switch to Frontier.
Indeed, UA's strategy is to focus on the long hauler. However, I don't think a desire to focus on the long hauler is results in serving he long hauler poorly. Rather it is an assumption that the long hauler will stay loyal to UA while he waits years for UA to make the reality match the nice TV ads.
While most of my flights are under 1000 miles, it won't be struggle to hit 1K on segments since my base is COS, and I refuse to drive I-25 in the winter (CDOT is too incompetent to keep it de-iced). That is assuming my employer allows allows me to travel. If not, whatever.