One thing that would help UA immensely is an AA strike. Get any of the unions there to go on strike this year, and that will steer passengers to UA, and with less seats this year they could easily raise last minute fares in that scenario to generate more cash. The AA pilots have already announced they are going to plan "disruptions" to the system with no notice to get attention. That alone should steer some passengers to UA.

Of course, UA's contracts are up the next year and if they go out it could work the other way around and benefit AA.