Originally Posted by
lucky9876coins
Sorta. In that video about the new C & F, Graham Atkinson, an SVP of United, was admitting that they are "middle of the pack" at best right now. He was hoping that this would bring them to the front. The hard product certainly has the potential to do that, but I think it's the soft product that's lacking right now, and which wont change with the new product unless there are some serious changes in the atmosphere at United.
Far be it for me to disagree with a SVP at UA, but I think this would be a rookie mistake (trying to be too many things to too many people vs. picking one thing and trying to excel at that one thing). As an example, SQ has great premium cabins, but you pay for that, and their frequent flier program sucks.
My suggestion for UA is that they go try and excel at middle-of-the-pack and pick (self-serving suggestion follows
the strategy of being the "frequent flier airline". Have the best frequent flier program of anyone (that is one area UA seems to excel in already) and don't even try to have the best C/F product.
I don't know if E+ has been successful from a P/L standpoint, but that was certainly a move in that (cater to frequent fliers) direction, and I suspect I am not the only person who continues to fly UA primarily because of E+ (with or without VOD).
For that matter, I wouldn't try to compete on low cost either. No more Ted! (Another self-serving suggestion, heh!)