Originally Posted by
Blumie
Although I posted 30 minutes after grahampros posted the above, this really is the right answer. It's generally more expensive to fly BOS-LGA than it is to fly BOS/JFK-LAX, at least in Y. All of the money is made in the sale of premium fares, and it would be extremely difficult for US to win over those customers, even if it did upgrade its premium product. There is tremendous brand loyalty among those passengers.
I'm not sure the whole "US cannot make money without a big premium product" is necessarily accurate. I work in an employer who is quite common -- they won't pay for domestic first (but will for international business class on long trips).
If US (or Delta) offered nonstop transcons from BOS, that would be a lovely thing.
As for United "kicking US out of the Star Alliance," it would never happen. The whole Star Alliance exists because of the theory of "coopetition" -- that cooperation and competition simultaneously happen. Besides, tossing US out of Star would screw LH (the real king of the alliance) and shut Star flyers out of the East Coast almost entirely. Given United's near-evacuation of JFK and pullbacks from Boston, it would leave the entire eastern US open to AA/OneWorld and Skyteam at Star's expense.
Besides, UAL shouldn't complain about US flying from its focus city of Boston to the UAL hubs in SFO and LAX, when UAL flies from those cities to the US hub in Philadelphia (and erodes US's position as a result).