Originally Posted by
halls120
They are indeed. Thing is, the competition isn't as intent on seeing how much they can get out of their customers, which means there are better deals than UA out there.
For example, earlier this year I flew LH SEA-FRA r/t. I put upgrade bids on both flights. They accepted my outbound bid of $1175, but rejected it on the return. no problem, because LH almost always has a seat or two up front for day of flight, which I got on the return for $875. The total for that flight was almost $1K less than I would have paid for J on UA metal, SEA-DEN-FRA and return. I've done the same on KL and SN.
I've got another TATL in February, and right now, UA J is competitive. We'll see what happens as my departure date is closer.
I hope the irony isn't lost that you going to LH vs UA is unlikely to hurt UA thanks to the JV and the revenue/cost sharing model it implements, so it kind of weakens the argument. It may even be that part of their pricing strategy considers this type of behavior, but I don't think UA would consider this losing you to a competitor. If it allowed them to retain a seat that they were able to get a higher fare on as opposed to selling it cheaper to you, then it sounds like it was win-win-win all around.