Originally Posted by bocastephen

Premium leisure, meaning those willing to pay significantly more for an aspirational experience are just a flash in the pan - that market has zero staying power. Regular leisure, which are those customers buying the best price/schedule, will certainly fill the gap until the recession scares them off, but they are not paying premium fares. Most people would pay more for a premium hotel experience vs pay up for a more expensive air ticket. If United wants to become an airline filling plans with bargain basement fares and tickling a few folks to impulse buy $50-200 into first class, so be it, but that's not a growth market or even a stable one at that.

Delta can get away with certain things because they've mastered the art of differentiation, which is no easy feat in an overly consolidated, highly commoditized industry. United has absolutely zero market differentiation., nor does American, but at least American has a better premium cabin experience on virtually all domestic flights. If I'm a free agent looking to buy into F, I am looking at AA and DL before I look at UA.