Originally Posted by
Renard
You're right here with the UA tie-up being the biggest catalyst... I think that the economy helped too. We started to see some 'cracks' in the policy with reports of certain corporate flyers tied to their corporate travel office being granted 100% EQMs on all fares--this appeared to be some type of negotiated agreement between CO and the companies. I think that CO started to realize that they couldn't leave any corporate travel money behind...even the corporate flyer on the cheapie fare. They had probably seen some of this business go to the competition due to 50% EQM.
Yeah, the other "crack" we saw was when they moved a fare class from the 50% bucket to the 100% bucket about a year ago.
I just can't help but think that the timing of the Star tie-up, the reversal of many anti-customer moves, and Larry's departure have to somehow be related.