I have found this in general, I think from EWR part of the problem is the first leg is often booked up. I was looking for 11/25 departure to SIN right after Thanksgiving, on UA was not finding anything below $12k, and that was mostly on ANA as well, since I already made 1K I was able to book on SQ for $6.5k, I still can't get my head around having to fly SQ because UA is to expensive... I will earn less RDM, but I will get to fly SQ, vs non Polaris seat UA, so I am very happy. My coworkers all fly ME airlines for this reason.
It may be that UA has kept its prices high ex-EWR because it feels it can sell a few seats to folks who are tied into UA by the FFP. But another reason is as noted below, is that UA has kept itself running by giving very large corporate contracts, often at 40+% off the rack rate. This means that that $12K fare really brings in $6K-$7.2K to UA. Big corporate contracts are like crack cocaine to the airline. They fill seats at decent fares, but they (a) make it hard to price to get the "un-managed" traffic (to use UA's term for those w/o corporate discounts) because if they offered a competative fare (say $6500) then they would have to give the seats away much cheaper to corporate accounts, and (b) set in place a mind-set that the product can and should be cut since people are getting it at a big discount. The problem is that once in to this loop, its hard to get out and have more reasonable and competitive rack rates. Delta's strategy has been to distinguish itself with OT and service and to drive up corporate rates, which to some extent it has done. United is deep in the addiction at this point.
The results is what you see, UA has crappy product because it truly believes its flyers have little options, while SQ offers (at times) better pricing and ends up getting many unmanaged sales
Originally Posted by
Kmxu
just like Boeing for selling aircraft, United gives its best corporation customers up to 50% discount.
Up, I think that this is much of what we are seeing. The answer of why fly UA when its $8K when OAL is $5500, is that if you are a "managed" traveler your company is really paying $4800 or less, and makes you fly UA. If unmanaged, then you are likely to just fly OAL.
Originally Posted by
jsloan
SQ is currently engaged in a fare war with UA to try to get UA to drop their SIN flights. They're hoping that by selling the seat for $6500 now, they might be able to sell it for $12K+ this time next year.
I don't see much of a price war going on (depending on days either may be more expensive, I think fare buckets have more to do with it) I do see a LOT of capacity in USA-SIN. This said, we may well see a fare war in the next few months...