Originally Posted by
newyorkgeorge
At some point there is going to be a monetization of the domestic F cabin by the US3. If not this year not too far down the road. There's too much pressure from Wall Street to ever increase revenues and there are already airlines that in fact have no complimentary upgrade system. You can't get Mint for free. I think such a move would only fail if one of the US3 didn't go along but let's face it none of them have bucked the trend.
Yes, Casey/Isom also talked about the first class up-sell, and recognizing that currently it takes a lot of work on behalf of the customer, and then you have to call into an agent (and he didn't mention that half the agents would try to charge a change fee, or that (I think) there's a fee for AA to take over a TA-issued ticket). They specifically see a $50m revenue opportunity.
DL said years ago that its goal was to sell 80% of domestic first class seats (though it didn't specify at what price...)
I don't know if there's any reason to take away complimentary upgrades altogether. Mint is somewhat of a different beast vs. regular domestic FC, and in fact DL did remove comp upgrades on its transcons when it introduced "DeltaOne" but reinstated them, albeit only on day of departure (and they're unicorns for all but top-tier or Saturday night flights). I guess they could always try again and see if AA/UA would follow...