Originally Posted by
SFO777
Do you also worry about getting hit by a bus or being struck by lightning when you wake up in the morning?
As for your blaming current AA management for the "situation right now", it was a prior management that mistakenly thought they could negotiate with the unions instead of filing for BK when others did. I see no evidence that current management does not understand the value of the AAdvantage program and EXPs. Poaching 1Ks from a competitor in disarray is a brilliant strategy, especially since said competitor can't do anything to stop it.
Sure they can, they can stop clowning on their 1Ks and GSes and other elites and stop selling TODs. They must think that they will make more money doing it, otherwise they wouldn't do it. I sense new UA is trying to chase away the lower yielding elites. And, for better or worse, they want to make money at the end of the day. If they feel keeping elite benefits strong and elites happy does that best, they will do that, but obviously they feel selling TODs will be more profitable. In a lot of places (SFO likely foremost among them, northern New Jersey/DEN/IAH/western greater DC area as well) the higher yielding elites are stuck with UA because of flight availability; these people will not want to connect unless they are forced to as their time is too valuable so they pay extra for the UA coverage out of those places. From ORD and LAX, and to a lesser degree Manhattan (since EWR and JFK are equally annoying to get to from Manhattan), AA is a much stronger competitor against UA, so depending on exact routes needed or available frequencies on major routes, those people might be able to switch.