Originally Posted by
chicagorich
Oh, for Pete's sake.
UA offered those fares and people bought them.
All UA has to do is raise their fares if their costs are not being covered.
The entire point is that UA management (and other legacy airline management) has been and are brain-dead stupid.
I have a sneaking suspcion that supply and demand have a wee bit to do with this as well...
Yes, UA offered fares and people bought them. The problem is that there are fewer people out there willing to pay for more expensive seats than there are seats to be sold. That is, supply drives the price down.
You suggest UA raise fares. Uh, why do you think they've tried and failed to make fare increases stick over the past few years? It fails because when you have to many seats to sell, you have to lower prices to sell them. At this point, the only way to raise fares and make them stick is to lower capacity.