Which is really piddle$hit compared to getting additional bookings.

It's interesting how this sort of minutae that Larry focused on is being unraveled here all around the time of his "departure." I completely understand the desire to save $5 a booking, and any beancounter can pull up an Excel and multiple $5 by the number of tickets sold. But if it was pushing away lucrative corporate customers, especially when their New York-area hub has other contenders, they were essentially biting off their nose to spite their face.

So the real question is, did it really cause them to lose enough business? After all, the policy was on the books for some 5-6 years, and without this UA linkup, they likely would not have revisited it.