Originally Posted by
lhuynh
I will make the argument that you get more revenue long term by treating the highest level elites well as we fly the most. That said, if the data shows that offering TODs maximizes revenue, then why not offer to elites first?
The publicly available revenue data seems to show that what they're doing does NOT maximize revenue. Revenues have fallen since the SHARES cutover, and UA now lags their competitors in terms of revenue per seat mile. This, after several years of being the industry leader.
That said, they can selectively use data points to drive their position and agenda. Jeff likes to talk about their robust SHARES platform allowing them to dynamically price E+ seating by seat and demand. While I completely believe this is what they're doing, what they're neglecting to mention is how much more difficult it is for agents to do E+ upsells at the gate, that they're probably selling fewer of them than they did in the PMUA world.
It's really about what data they choose to present and how they spin it.