Originally Posted by
Bonehead
That certainly seems to be the prevailing wisdom on this board.
Perhaps it's time for a poll of GF potential buyers:
Would you be more likely to buy GF on UA if it were upgraded to resemble [insert your favorite international first-class airline here]'s First Class?
I suppose price points would also be an appropriate question.
Also, for Business-Class purchasers:
Would you be more likely to buy Business Class on UA if GF were upgraded to resemble [insert your favorite international first-class airline here]'s First Class, in hopes of securing an upgrade to GF?
UA's hard product was already upgraded starting in 2008ish to be competitive with what other airlines had at the time. We sort of already know the answer to this; it hasn't helped. This could be for a number of reasons (GF coming online at a horrible time for it, merger problems, etc.), but it hasn't objectively helped them in their race with DL and AA.
Now, there's two ways to look at it; one is "well, if they had better champagne and caviar/massages and spas in the lounges/luxury cars to drive you to the plane/better food, it would work better", the other is that "well, DL seems to be doing OK without it".
I might point out that F seats are being pulled from various places around the world, from some pretty well-regarded carriers (QF, EK, LH, and so on)... so it's not like AA and DL don't have company.
Originally Posted by
bhrubin
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.
UA just completed installing IPTE in what, 2011? There's no reason to tear it out (and incur additional capex) before you're scheduled to. Certainly not when you're supposed to cut $2 billion...
I think that the fact that if they wanted to they COULD add in the Dom and caviar, but they choose not to, is more telling. Not having F on their new longhaul plane orders so far is also telling.
Now, if UA shows us A350s with GF, then I might buy that they aren't slowly consigning it to the dumpster. But why would UA spend money tearing out seats right now?