If you look in the qualifications thread, I posted my stats
I think that like me most GS - who don't get it via international F/C tickets - fly on a mix of fares. In my case mostly M/E/U/H, with a few F/Y/B thrown in, and an occasional lower fare as well.
I seriously doubt that there is ANYONE who is not on a "managed" corporate account (with a 30% to 40% discount off Y) who is routinely buying Y. There are certainly people whose companies always pay for F, but not many of them. I think its a complete myth that there are a lot of folks (or anyone for that matter) who just flies full Y. I have asked a lot of domestic GS and they all have similar patterns to me or have companies who always pay for F.
If my small sample reflects reality, then UAs strategy had a major flaw in it, they are chasing a group of people who don't exist.
I might add that my ORD-DTW upgrade on the 6:30 pm flight cleared. But what was more interesting to me is that this flight used to be a 757, and it was always full, with lots of folks connecting. Now UA is flying a crj700 (with the earlier flight being a crj200 and later flight also a crj700). Yet on a Monday,
there was no one on the upgrade list for F, 5 folks were upgraded (the last a silver), and given that this is the prime time (monday, 6:30 pm) for travel, I was shocked by the small load of elites. I can only guess that having replaced mainline with RJs, and competition that is using mainline (or better RJs) that UA is just getting killed. I've flown this flight many times before and a year ago it always had 30 people left on the upgrade list with F filled to 24.
obviously, it is just a data point, but it stuck out at me.
