Originally Posted by
drewguy
Agree it seems unlikely. BE aren't the customers UA really wants to attract - i.e., the ones that are looking for the lowest fare possible regardless, although they're happy to take their money. The fares are designed to appear to be competitive in search engines more than to drive sales.
Unless they realize they can't fill planes without offering a carry-on, seems like they'll stick with it.
But that's the thing. The search engines are getting smarter. It is now possible to search by price including things like carey-ons.
Budget travelers are not the customers UA wants to attract, but those cheap seats are sold for a reason, they are crucial to profitably . I dont think they will be content on ceding this traffic to HA/AS/DL/AA/B6/WN, or charging $25 less for the long term.
No free carry on probably works fine in markets that they are not directly competing with the other non ULCCs. Maybe they ran the numbers and the extra revenue in those markets compensates for the lost revenue in the others.