Originally Posted by Joeypete
I'm sure many of our prices are higher than competitors but they have stated to us that they are no longer interested in fare wars.
This past Thanksgiving we had record revenue numbers, but fairly low load factors compared to years before. This is because we did not match the other carriers lower fares. After they were sold out, people booked on us and we made more money in the process. I don't think we will post a profit for the 4th quarter but they said our revenue was up considerably because of the pricing.
This has actually been AA's strategy for years. Try to get a revenue premium where possible, even with slightly lower load factors. It generally worked very well for AA (until 9/11 happened and (in hindsight) an ill-advised merger with TWA).
Good for US -- doing a solid revenue management job!