As bocastephen wrote in a separate, recently-locked thread: "Ignoring how your customers feel in favor of nonsensical metrics and gasbag analysts is devoid of reality."

If UA's spreadsheet-centric decision-making was so good, the company would not be North America's industry laggard, and would not have repelled so many lucrative customers since 3/12.

Time and again the post-merger UA has proven that business decisions based on "facts and data" -- shifting lift to UAX, cross-fleeting with no tech support in outstations, slashing service to some key markets, pulling out of others -- have not driven great business results.

A lot of things that look good on a spreadsheet bomb in the real world.