Originally Posted by
kettle1
As I said up-thread, UA is currently the 2nd largest airline in the World. They can not provide service to IAH, DEN, ORD, IAD, SFO and LAX (all hubs) from JFK - something is wrong if they can not make a profit on those routes.
Forget LAX - UA can not compete on service levels in C (I get that). I question SFO being dropped, as that is a UA fortress hub? They can not make money going to ORD, IAD, and IAH? That, I question?
The thing that is "wrong" is that UA is the only airline with a large hub in NYC. It makes no sense to undercut your own hub by trying to cater to everyone in NYC. JFK is by far the 3rd-child for UA. Only recently did DL turn a profit in NYC (likely thanks to LGA, not JFK). Something is wrong for them too, right? No, it's called too much competition for anyone to turn profits.
UA commanded the highest fares on both LAX-JFK and SFO-JFK. Clearly their C product was highly competitive and isn't the reason for this change. They're moving it out because the competition is so high that it's not worth it.
Originally Posted by
FlyingNut724
not just habitual customers, but "high-value" habitual customers
Those HVHCs didn't help them turn a consistent profit. Are they really "high value" then? No, not at all. They're low-value. Just because they spend a lot of money on a J seat doesn't make then high-value.
Originally Posted by
uanj
Though we have not heard UA articulating such a strategy, the US market is in need of a true business traveler airline. One we can reliably count on in IRROPS. One that moves mountains when some operational issue causes delays or cxl's. DL comes a bit closer than AA or UA, but it would be a real opportunity for any of the US3 to focus on this.
The airline you want will be the first to be out of business. The amount of extra costs associated with being so reliable will be easily undercut by more efficient carriers that are just as reliable, except for those few bad days out of the year. Customers have spoken over and over. They will not pay more for premium. Price rules in a near commodity.