Hi,

I am 6' 4" tall and have arthritis. If I can't fly first class, I won't fly. And since that is that standard for myself, I can't in good conscious ask any of my family to fly coach. So, we fly in paid first. Fortunately, as my knees have gotten weaker, my checkbook has gotten stronger, so this is not a problem.

In the last five years, we have always flown AA. My daughter had an accident a few years ago that gives her motion sickness when she flies, and she has expressed a very strong desire to avoid connections. So, I will book her flights on other airlines. Sometime earlier this year, I started noticing Delta charging only 40-50% of what I would consider a "normal" first class fare.

Well, my wife and I frequently fly from Orlando to Denver, and always on AA with a connection. I know United has a direct flight, but they always wanted about 150% more than we paid with AA (we have Aairpasses with AA). Last week, I looked and saw that United would sell us first class seats for about what AA charges us with our Aairpasses (about a 60% discount from the cheapest first class seat I've ever seen United offer on this route).

Is charging about 60% less than they used to for paid domestic first a new trend in the air travel industry? I sure hope so, because these prices are pretty astonishing to me. Or is this just a bunch of sales, and not a long term trend?