US's moves make sense IF you look at each passenger group as monolithic, i.e. Full Fare pax always buy full fare, discount pax always buy discount.

In my position, some of my trips are planned way in advance and some of the trips are booked the day before. So, am I a blood-sucking discount flyer or a Full Fare savior? US will never know.

I fly on behalf of a large corporation and can choose whichever airline I want. If the fares are within 100-150 $ I tend to choose CO. My second choice is DL. If neither of those is available, I tend to go for WN or HP. I will pay a little more for elite perks, but I would have to justify to my boss why I paid hundreds more. I dont think US can be more WN than WN. They have too much of an advantage. Just ask Kmart. I suspect this is just one more step on the road to Ch. 7.

In my opinion, US has an enviable position on the East Coast. How they manage to continually screw it up escapes me. They have one trick and one trick only, buy their competitors. It will be an interesting case study to see how their moves play out.

I, for one, am not that worried about all airlines following their moves. At least one of the majors will position themselves as a carrier for pax in my situation, I just hope it's not AArrogant AAirlines.