Originally Posted by
leftysauce
Also, even if most passengers don't look at the fare class, it still matters because like you said, it depends on the availability. The same price point went from "this is a standard fare" to " we are running a huge sale". I don't think it's fair to bank on the flight being empty/the fare class being widely available to not call this a fare increase
IMO, that's ascribing too much meaning into what a fare class means to UA. Fares alone aren't especially meaningful until paired with inventory to produce an actual ticket. I'd really call this more of a fare realignment than a fare increase. For now it appears that UA is managing L fares/inventory like they used to manage W, with similar changes climbing up the fare latter. This has a bit of extra significance because of fare class breaks for Plus Points and milage earning with some programs, but it really doesn't give us any indication that the out-of-pocket cost for the average person will increase. I suspect that fares for the average person won't increase much at all ... and the original title, while technically accurate, definitely gave the impression that everyone would be paying 45%-125% more.