Originally Posted by
eng3
...UA is know for being short sighted so they dont even consider his future revenue....
I think UA does recognize it, but does not consider it.
I really do think United assumes for every traveler they lose due to zero tolerance on certificate sales, they will gain one from DL or American for the same reason. Additionally, some may be stuck with United because of route efficiency from their home base or corporate travel preferences.
Making a big deal solely based on one passenger's revenue pre-boot doesn't take into account a variety of other factors that may mitigate the net loss to United.
As long as DL and AA deal harshly with rule breakers, it's a zero sum game for the airlines relative to revenue as the ejected just move between the big 3 and UA/AA/DL get to deprive the violators of revenue-reducing mileage, e-certs, upgrade certs, etc. The violators bear the bulk of the punishment (loss of their accounts), not the airlines.