although as someone who flies cross country for a two hour meeting I will pay the fare, I am not surprised, and expect others to match this. the airlines ought to be charging folks who can and will pay more, more... and as long as they make it a Y or B so I can get an upgrade, so be it.

I think a little bit of this has been going on even without an anouncement. Suddenly in the last month what used to be an H or lower fare is now a full Y and its costing me $1400-1800 to fly RT. fares are like pre-dot bomb crash. I don't think they have run out of lower fares, I think they have changed what will show up in a search.

(CO has done this for a while, offering a slightly higher Y or B fare that is upgradable, perhaps UA is now doing the same by just not offering the lower fare.)

If others don't march, UA will back down, but I expect others to follow (if they have not already done so).