In calendar year 2001, I took 14 trips to Europe. I tried to do as many of them on CO as possible, but I can tell you that out of SFO, Continental consistently had some of the highest fares. Other than 4420/4419, which is the CO hardblock on Virgin into LHR nonstop from SFO, CO would virtually never match the fares of competitors. This obviously was frustrating as a CO plat, and I would frequently pay more than the lowest available fare to fly CO (pre HoKeY). My point is simply, I checked Europe fares ex SFO very frequently.

I have noticed that beginning with this new winter season, Continental's pricing behavior has dramatically changed, at least out of SFO. I don't have time to research more markets, but I can't see any reason why SFO would be treated differently, and I am thinking CO must be going through an overall shift in pricing policy as to their Europe routes.

Just some examples taken off Travelocity today (and you can get 10% more off at CO dot com, making an even greater disparity):

SFO DUB - CO-$409 V fare; next lowest BA-$518
SFO MAN - CO-$357 V fare; next lowest US-$451
SFO MAD - CO-$482 V fare; next lowest AL-$520
SFO LHR - CO-$343 Q fare; UA matched; next lowest $410
SFO FCO - CO-$464 V fare; next lowest LH-$502

The list goes on and on. The only destination I could find where CO was not a pace setter was Glasgow.

So here's my question. What's up? Why would CO reverse pricing policy year-over-year so dramatically?

Are they really hurting for loads? For cash? Is HoKeY and international cocktail charges etc. catching up with them? Are people not happy with the 31" pitch or other aspects of the new 777 birds, and are choosing other carriers?

If the foregoing is/are true, do you think CO management might get the idea of changing some of the draconian policies they've set up?

Or are loads okay and CO is just doing massive price dropping to put other carriers out of business? Or do you all have other ideas?

I have never seen such a radical shift in pricing policy season-over-season in all the years I've flown CO. And I'm especially surprised that CO - a long time "we won't match fares to Europe" carrier, is now dropping the floor on prices to levels even below where their competitors will follow them.

I'm curious why people think this is happening.