Originally Posted by
kenhawk
On the other hand, the revenue United needs to survive comes from the more-than-generous GS and 1K members who actually pay for an "IPTE" experience. Not offering it fleet-wide, when international competitors do, may actually be more costly from a lost revenue standpoint. Most businesses find they are unable to "save" their way to a profit.
On the other hand, there may be less lost revenue than you'd think. The economy is hard
everywhere, and companies are doing what they can to cut costs in order to keep them in line with reduced revenue. Non-essential travel budgets are among the first items to get hit, and that includes policies that allow flying in premium cabins versus Y.
UA seems to have begun their conversion to a quality premium cabin just in time to see much of the targeted market evaporate.