Originally Posted by
belynch
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 have loudly made the case that this was a very bad business decission, because it was in effect a tax on those with UA status (who now had to pay more to avoid a BE fare) and they were most likely to realize the scam UA was running, and if they had options, consider them. Seth's post (below yours) links to his article where he admits he bought a WN fare, to in part avoid BE. I think his reaction is common enough, especially on highly competitive routes, that United would be able to detect a book away combined with complaints, if they looked for one. evidently they found it.
I did find it interesting though that on SFO-SEA, which is highly competitive, UA is still trying to sell BE's in higher fare brackets. I have to go to SEA on this Friday, everyone is $216 (o/w), but UA is a BE, DL/AS/VX are regular Y. And on the few flights that are $308, UA is also a BE, DL/AS are regular Y. United is simply not competitive at this point, and anyone with options really ought to question why they are putting up with being ripped off regarding using their status on every flight on UA vs flying a real airline with better product and service
