Looks like they're just zero'ing out the N fares on certain routes instead of refiling fares at this point.
The cynic in me says they ran Q3 numbers and saw a sizable attrition in high-rev fares being purchased (I know in the organization I work for when we eliminated BE fares from our search query UA fares instantly dropped to the bottom of the search matrix).
Given the timing at EOQ I'm sensing this BE for all experiment was an unmitigated failure and they're dealing with some pretty big business consequences. I hope I'm right and I hope Kirby gets knocked down a peg or 7 in the customer are dumb, let's screw them hard approach.
I've violated two cardinal investing rules today because of this:
- I sold my UA long positions mainly on emotion for the disdain of the way they handled BE fares (I have some data to back me up on the corporate booking attrition, and I've been holding for a year and have realized a nice return)
- I'm now shorting the stock (as an investment rule I never bet on people's failure).
Let's see how this plays out in the Q2 earnings call. My .02 is they use the word "recalibrate" a dozen times in reference to BE.