I feel compelled to point out the ridiculousness of this statement. What else would United do? Throw darts at a wall of options? Use Tarot cards? Ask a class of kindergarden children? ("Barney! Make it Barney!") Rest assured United will "have a close look" at their options and update things accordingly.

It's interesting to note that in the markets where United most needs differentiation, they're not necessarily up against the products everyone's been describing. For example, they have a chokehold on west-coast traffic to Asia, and most U.S. companies put their employees on either United or American. Yet American is in the trenches, removing their "more room throughout coach" feature, and already lagging behind United's premium cabin features. Even an incremental boost to United's premium products would put them far, far ahead of American, and without substantial restructuring, American will be unable to catch up until the market comes around.

United will clearly be positioning itself as the premium international carrier. If they succeed in doing so, they can expand east coast European routes (perhaps beginning to compete beyond a single daily JFK-LHR route, versus BA's 7 daily non-stops, as an example) and expand their 767 offerings to Latin America which lag today only because of a lack competitive offerings. Could United make a great leap forward in this market with lie flat bets? I suspect they could. Because even if we love the existing C seats, they don't set the airline apart from others in growing markets.

The opportunities for the expansion of F on 777/747 aircraft are nearly endless, and there are clearly many available approaches to C on 74/76/77. Here's the real question: Should they discard F altogether on 767s and do a "BusinessFirst" approach? There's not much room up front for worthwhile improvements.

(My vote? No, but only because I'd be terrified of the slippery slope of removing F across the product line!)