The YCA issue is non-sense.

First, United effectively exited the government contract market this year...they really have no transcon contracts at all in 2016. Even if that was the issue, YCA could have been exempted....

Second, the YCA fares typically are more expensive than the discounted premium fares (which government employees can't buy). Not always..there are examples of pretty aggressive contract bids, but frequently. THe overwhelming majority of government travel is via the capacity controlled fares (which are VCA or lower).An example - From Honolulu, my home, the only United contract to the east coast is ATL. $316 VCA / $636 YCA. $618 P fare available to the general public. Most travelers will be in VCA, the few in YCA would gladly pay less for first. But they can't.

The YCA fliers are significantly affected by this change....the vast majority are not high level elites, and the government ticketing policy is 3 days prior to travel. But there are very few that this applies to.

The idea, frequently but erroneously depicted on FT, is of a $109 silver YCA out of IAD trumping a "real" fare 1K. Utter nonsense. As one data point, my 50/50 government and personal travel in 2015 yielded 160K PQMs and 20K PQDs.