Originally Posted by entropy

due to WN, not UA.

F9 is picking off passengers from some key leisure and business routes. They're like a parasite, but the danger for UA, is that there is a very limited # of people willing to pay $1000 for a mid-haul domestic ticket. And the dirty secret they never want to admit is that you NEED the lower fare passengers to fill most of the seats, that base level of VFR demand is what keeps the planes there for those high yield passengers. Lose that base level of traffic, and the frequencies you want to support don't work.

F9 can sell a cheap base fare, add a few extra discretionary charges and make it work.