Look - I'm not sure we can expect to pay 5-7 cents per mile to fly across the country any more. Oil costs more, unionized labor ( ) costs more etc. Times change.

HOWEVER - I say UA starts to make the 'lower' fares non-upgradeable. Say everything W/S and lower is non upgradeable. Then folks who want to pay 350 to fly 4700 miles can get the price they want but not be allowed to upgrade to a seat that should cost 3 times that.

In turn, those of us that buy refundable fares, F/A or C fares can enjoy a higher quality FC because people on 350 buck XC tickets are not filling 1000+ dollar seats that COULD (and probably would) be sold.

People need to get over the idea of cheapo coach tickets being a right (despite market conditions) and almost expect to get a FC on that ticket.

US, NW, AS etc prove what this does to the quality of first class...