Originally Posted by
dvs7310
I would suspect that much lost revenue will be made up by business travelers intentionally booking higher fare classes for more PQR (or delaying purchase, forcing higher fare classes by default). I know not everyone can get away with that, but a fair number of people have little oversight on the actual booking class as long as it fits within their corporate travel policy.
I fall into this category, but I am likely to simply book on SQ/NH. I'm not going to reward UA for providing a worse premium product, often at a higher price, then trying to force me to buy it to maintain my status, even if it's with someone else's money. Then I'm likely to credit the miles to A3, so that UA can't get an extra $1 out of me for ancillary revenue even when I do travel with UA. And as I said in another thread, if I miss my CPUs to/from Hawaii, it will make the decision even easier, because the main reason I keep status on UA is for CPUs (which Jeff keeps increasingly trying to sell out from under me, while not even giving me an instrument to use to get them back like the old 500 mile upgrades).
To address the original question: no, I don't think fewer MRs will result in less revenue. Those MR revenues typically would be snatched up by anyone. However, I DO think UA will lose revenue from fewer elites booking at a premium to get upgrades and/or get PQM, and are replaced by Kayakers.