Has anyone here ever made a stab at figuring out whether E+ is a money loser or not for UA? I get the impression that it drives significant incremental revenue (and is a profit center), but that's based on some rather foggy recollections of past threads.
Anecdotally, it seems to make money on buy-ups, I've seen a lot of people do the buy up, and UA agents make announcements to let people do it. They also have the infrastructure to do the sell ups in their UI, which CO can't do (u have to kiosk). they can also process E+Ups onboard.
I know for me, its good insurance against not getting an upgrade (rare) or irrops or VDBs, I know that 90% of the time I'll be taken care of (in E+). I assume for the lower tiers who enjoy less of the upgrade love, the E+ is a HUGE incentive to choose UA over anyone else and people including myself would pay a premium to be on a UA-metal flight.