If UA can get people to pay 3 times the competitor's price for the same flight time and connections, theyll do it.
I now dont bother with UAs business class offerings on long haul flights. From Houston UA is frequently triple the price of competitors for the same aircraft/class/connection times.
I suspect that much of UAs business class pricing is driven by people who arent ultimately paying for the tickets or who have deep discounts on tickets.
Im far less irritated by UA now that I use them when they are price competitive only. So what if Im only Silver or Gold or I make MM a year later than I would otherwise Im still flying in the front and with the same connections and Im paying thousands less per year. Last year, had I flown UA long haul business class exclusively, on just 3 transcontinental roundtrips, I would have paid 9k more.