Originally Posted by
Always Flyin
DL gave up international F and is by far the most profitable US carrier with an international presence.
AA is giving up international F on most markets and is the second most profitable US carrier with an international presence. (BTW, you left DFW-HKG off your list of 77W flights.)
UA has the most extensive international F presence of the U.S. airlines on it pmUA planes and is the least profitable.
What could I possibly read into that?
UA also has its headquarters in Chicago and DL has its headquarters in Atlanta...so should we assume that to be the cause for DL being so profitable and UA being so less profitable?
You've stated a fallacy based on faulty causation. Yes, DL has been most profitable, but I doubt anyone believes or you can find the data to support that it's BECAUSE of the DL abandonment of true First. It's incidental!
UA's problems are well-documented--and having true First isn't one of them. UA ALSO has more transpacific business than DL and AA, and its competition there have true First, so it seems likely that may be one reason why UA hasn't dumped international First.
The fact remains that for true international First Class redemptions--which is what I was pointing out in the end--UA is the best bet among the US carriers. As if DL miles weren't already worthless, and as if AA redemptions weren't already harder to come by on AA, UA has perhaps found another reason to stand out among its domestic competition. Frequent flyers--especially business travelers--like to have options for award travel, and UA gives better options for First...not to mention on far more routes on its own metal.
Originally Posted by
exerda
I certainly wouldn't read anything into it. Correlation isn't causation, and though I don't believe UA offers a competitive global first product vis-a-vis many of the world's airlines, I also don't believe for a moment that having global first is causing UA's losses. There are much more fundamental issues (reliability, quality of soft product top among them) at play...
Agreed. Of course, when looking at the competition between the US carriers, which is what United must most often do for Wall Street, having more true international First may, indeed, help UA climb back to more consistent profitability. UA doesn't win on many fronts with AA and DL on the numbers, but it does in this department.
As frequent business travelers, my husband and I definitely have stayed with UA partly because of award redemptions available in UA GlobalFirst. Alliance partners are great, but they don't provide as reliable award redemption options as with your own carrier. UA's network is the biggest between AA and DL. UA's First Class is more prevalent than AA's (and DL doesn't even offer it). That likely is a factor for more people than just us. Whether it's enough of a factor for UA to continue maintaining its lead on First Class seats against AA and DL, only time will tell.
But for the time being, UA is best in this area. Everyone loves to slam UA. Here is a manner in which UA is better serving me than AA or DL can.