Originally Posted by
bhrubin
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.
So if you're happy about UA GF, great. Saying that it's presence might somehow make UA more profitable is just like saying it's presence is the cause of UA financial woes. Either view point lacks any basis. From a factual side:
-AA offers intl F on around 61 planes (47+14). UA offers it on 66 as per your numbers.
-Of course UA has a better network in asia (ironically recent excuse for poor financial performance in quarterly calls), whereas AA has a better network to south America.
-UA does have a better route network than the rest of US legacies, but at least so far that hasn't resulted in much of a profit. (DL did expand quite a bit and their network is looking more impressive everyday personally. Of course there's still the issue of hubs in secondary markets.)
You can decide what aspects of an airline matter to you and make a corresponding choice. Although if your goal is reliable transpac first class award redemptions, you should look at Cathay (easily available with AA miles).