Originally Posted by
fly18725
I think Mint was the straw that broke the camels back. The trains on market has changed from a duopoly to a food fight. United is the only one with a real option outside of JFK and it makes sense to leverage a position of strength.
I think flat beds will still be on the route in a year. Will it be called ps? Not willing to put money on that.
PRASM hasn't fallen in any year since the merger and corporate revenue continues to grow.
The "market" (the people who buy J/F on this route) is not interested in EWR. The "market" lives, works and exists in Manhattan and the immediate vicinity, and JFK is the airport "brand" the market for a premium transcon identifies with. I deal with high net worth and celebrity clients, and they think going to Newark is like being sent to the ghetto - they don't like it, and won't do it unless it's literally the only option. It's just not a real airport to them and I am not going to argue with a client who calls it "disgusting". If they don't like it, I don't book it.
The facts posted upthread are correct. AA, DL and B6 offer a vastly superior product to UA PS and UA simply cannot compete against these other brands in the premium nonstop space. Full stop. Their only logical option was a retreat to EWR where at least they could try and upsell the extreme west-side or coastal-Hudson customers who
may already find EWR more convenient and who might consider PS as an enhancement to the domestic F nonstops currently on this route. For this one, narrow, slim market, then PS is an "enhancement", and it would be for the NJ suburbanites who need to use EWR for travel anyway because they are in the EWR catchment.
Frankly I don't care where UA flies its PS planes - JFK or EWR is irrelevant for me personally, but I do care when false claims are made that PS is still a fresh, modern, updated competitive product in the face of the AA 321s, DL BE/DL1 or B6 Mint planes that currently run these routes...it isn't, and the move to EWR was a defensive change, and not the "enhancement" claimed by the nonsense marketing spin.