Originally Posted by vandrei

Just when you thought UA management couldn't get any dumber.

Yesterday, Jeff Smisek acknowledged in a WSJ article that drastic changes to MP last year hurt United, and then this note comes out today.

Are they trying to drive away their mid-tier customers?

If UA wants to compete on premium product, then I'm sorry, it ain't gonna work. I've gotten the chance to fly in domestic F due to CPUs and mile-based upgrades this year. I've even been tricked by one of UA's buy-up at ticketing but it's not really a buy-up shenanigans into paying for domestic F. And the product, by and large, has been inconsistent. Sometimes it's good. Most times it's meh. And I have noticed the reductions in food quantity - and I'm not just talking about the hot nuts here.

That said, all that's left is the "kettles." And UA's product for them is inferior to the WN, JetBlue, Virgin, etc. equivalents. I have plenty of "kettle" friends who absolutely refuse to fly UA and even deride me for doing so - they have zero loyalty and they don't like getting nickel-and-dimed for E+/bags/WiFi (does UA even have WiFi onboard yet?).

Seriously, though, this is not hard. UA's management has forgotten that airlines are businesses and that businesses exist for one reason: to serve their customers. Without customers, any business will DIE.