Originally Posted by
belynch
I live in a tier 2 city and every flight involves a connection (unless I'm flying to a carrier's east coast hub or ORD) and generally fly to a non-hub city. So if I'm flying ROC - PDX I can fly AA, DL, or UA all with one stop and they're all priced almost identically almost every time for out on Monday home on Friday at normal hours. Don't believe me; check it. It's like this in almost every secondary market to secondary market out there.
+1 I think this fundamental fact is something that UA has utterly failed to understand since 2012. They keep thinking they have monopoly hub power and people have to fly then. The truth is that with Delta expanding on the West Coast and ex-BOS and JFK, AA+US, WN building out there network, and to a lesser extent (on the west coast) with AS+VX, most second tier cities no longer have a "best option" airline, they have several that work equally well.
And major metropolitan areas (SEA, SFO, BOS) are seeing much more competition and more options. E.g. when I bailed on UA just after the SFH, it was hard to make it work, I flew several different airlines. But today, I can put 80% of my travel direct on VX+AS and perhaps 70% direct on DL, vs maybe 85% direct on UA. Things that might fly in a monopoly hub (like charging your elite fliers $30+ extra to use their elite benefits and not get treated like they are flying NK) just don't fly in a competitive market.