Originally Posted by
cfischer
and I would argue it was ‘calculated’ rather than a ‘mistake’.
You’re giving UA way too much credit. It’s far more likely that nobody thought about the consequences.
Originally Posted by
Xyzzy
UA could easily have made changes without affecting *A "uniformity" (such as it is). They c
uld have divided Y/B/M in a different fashion, say M for E+ and domestic PP fares -- and then only done instant upgrades from Y/B ... or some other combination, without getting rid of instant upgrades altogether.
I suspect that B was used because so few people bought B fares. Y could not be used — remember, they zero out the B bucket now if E+ is full, so Y4 B0 M4 has become a thing — and there are some markets where M fares still come up semi-frequently.
The inventory component is the only reason they needed a separate booking class in the first place, incidentally.