Originally Posted by LondonElite

Or it could be that UA has figured out that the only people travelling/buying tickets now are people who have to fly, and are thus price insensitive. It's not like they're going to motivate lots of people to fly there on cheap fares when they can't enter the country or have a proper vacation.

Originally Posted by radonc1

Basically, the only people who are getting on a plane these days are the ones who must travel and put up with the entry restrictions placed on them by countries. There is no "leisure" travel so to speak.

Therefore, there is no elasticity in pricing. UA has to fly the route, so it can charge any fare it wants to because if you have to get there, you are going to pay the bill, and if it is too high and you balk, then in UA's mind, you didn't have to get there.

And no matter what UA charges you, they are going to lose a bucket full of money on the flight, because 5 of you at $800 a ticket does not match 140 lost passengers at $400 a ticket.