Originally Posted by
caverunner17
That's what is surprising me though. I've flown DEN-Chicago 7x this year. That's 14 flights -- and 0 of them have been on UA. There's 5 carriers competing on that route - UA, AA, NK, WN, and F9.
My most recent trip this weekend cost around $130 for each ticket (so $260 RT). AA, WN and UA offered the same price, AA and UA were BE. What's the incentive for me to fly UA when they're going to cost $20-25 more than AA or WN, per flight?
NK and F9 both offered around $90-110 fares, so when you added in the checked luggage, it brought it to the AA/WN/UA fares. If UA was matching ULCC fares with BE, then I'd understand.
Surprised they haven't seen more people booking away, I guess based on what you said. Captive audience?
Now now it gets more interesting. Because you’re flying a hub-hub route and not with UA. So if you’re so price sensitive and not taking up a seat on a route on which UA can easily fill with those paying higher fares, I’m even more confused why they should be offering a bigger incentive for you to fly UA on this route. These are going to be UAs busiest flights. Why incentivize a flyer to UA from. NK, F9, etc, on a hub-hub like this when they can likely be earning a higher fare from a hub captive on either end, a flyer connecting to a lucrative international flight, etc. there’s simply no point since their likely to fill the seat with a higher paying customer.
Originally Posted by
MrAndy1369
Makes no sense to me why UA won't match AA/DL/AS with this. UA might lose some competition on this, and UA should be working to keep its customers after what happened last year and all the negative PR fallout. My two cents.
What negative PR fallout? Are we still trying to go back to the Dao incident?
Ive heard of many negative PR stories on multiple carriers, specifically the US ones. Both major and ULCC. UA has had its fair share, sure. But DL or AA aren’t doing much better in that category these days. There was a riot (or pretty close to it) in Florida (was it FLL?) when Spirit cancelled a bunch of flights and didn’t help their pax at all. Have you ever heard of what happens then on a ULCC? Trust me, they’re not booking you on another carrier - and they don’t have extra planes to bring in - you’re at their mercy of how many days it takes them to get you in their next available seat - could be days - especially if it’s a route that isn’t even daily.
Quite honestly, I’d rather be on UA as a BE pax then on F9, NK, etc.
No.
And, if you are strictly a price shopper, you aren't a target flier of UA - or, DL or AA or SWA. You are more a target of Frontier or Spirit.
this. Despite the fact that I would never fly Spirit, Allegiant or Frontier, etc., because I don’t think it’s worth it, personally, I respect that they have been able to bring in essentially a new class of travelers, offer flights to smaller places the majors won’t nexessarily go, and be profitible doing it. I do feel bad for the pax though who don’t realize how tight the pitch is, that they’ll have to pay for a glass of water or to be guaranteed a seat next to their companion, or the mess that they’ll be in if a plane goes MX, or if there happens to be a thunderstorm that day. At least BE isn’t as bad in many of those respects, even if it means there’s no full size carry on.
Originally Posted by
caverunner17
Who isn't a price shopper these days, outside of corporate clients, especially on routes where more than one airline has a hub on either end? Scheduling isn't often a big issue for these trunk routes as multiple airlines have multiple flights/day. Points have been so devalued that it isn't really a reason for a casual flyer to choose one airline over another -- something I used to do around the turn of the decade -- keep all my flights within *A due to the 1:1 mileage earning.
F9/NK offer a true ULCC platform -- they often are the low price leader -- as long as you know what you're buying and can fly their sometimes limited schedules and limited ability to solve IRROPS issues.
I'd be curious who the people are who are filling those UA E seats -- late purchases where BE isn't offered anymore? Captive audiences? People not smart enough to realize it's cheaper on AA, DL or WN if they're buying up? Corporate clients? MileagePlus card holders (free checked bags)?
As someone mentioned, some of the search engines are now including the option to add in bag prices or only see fares that allow carry-ons. This means someone would have to actively *want* to pay more and choose UA, assuming competition on the route.
Edit: It totally makes sense on hub-spoke routes with no direct competition -- easy upsell since you don't have competition. What I'm getting at is it's on all routes... which makes them not really competitive with the other majors.
probabyl almost everyone is a price shopper, to
some extent. But there are different variances.
I value my UA status, for example, and traveling with a family, I value those benefits as well as the relatively large schedule options UA has. So I’m still willing to pay more for UA than other carriers, particularly the ULCCs mentioned, and even than other legacies (traveling with two adults and two kids mean we need 1-2 bags, so every ticket on a carrier that I don’t have status on is automatically $50-$100 more round trip). I want a decent legroom (sorry...28 inches won’t do), I want to know that I can sit with my family, and I want to know that there’s more than one flight a day because of something goes wrong (and it does...not always, but it does), I want to know that there are backup options if necessary. If you don’t want/need those things, that’s great...ULCCs May very well be a better option. For me, it’s not.
Originally Posted by
HNLbasedFlyer
People with Frequent Flier status fill the majority of the UA E cabin. People with Frequent Flier are less sensitive to price than people who do not have the status.
maybe on some hub to hubs and peak time business city pairs. I doubt it’s that way on the average flight. I’d guess there are many flights where the majority of the cabin doesn’t even have a frequent flyer account, much less status.