Originally Posted by
Often1
Waiting to fill the empty seats is exactly what got UA in the pickle in 2007-09. Now, the smarter move is to cut capacity. With full Y selling at 9-10x the price of deep discounts, UA can well afford to lose 9 deep discounters, if it frees up just 1 seat for somebody paying close to their freight.
The new UG system does just that. Rewards the Y/B (and M for 1K) ticket buyers so long as they've got some elite status over those who've made low-spend status.
UA is moving toward a spend-based system, make no mistake about it.
I agree that United is looking at catering to the last minuted business traveler. But, (1) the high use of RJs; (2) the cut in perks and (3) the inability to operate during IRROPS (the main reason I have flown them for so many years) has angered the exact people who would usually book such a fare. At least according to FT and my own experience, many of those people are booking AA and DL domestically and others internationally.
From my perspective (as a 1K who spends between $30-40K per year with them) it seems to me that they are driving away the exact people they want to have fly their airline. Perhaps I'm really not the person they want (at least that is the message I'm getting), but I don't think you can fill 100% of every plane with full Y fares (unless its a dash-8).