zkzkz

I wonder if this was why AC was flooding NYC with that crazy number of flights. If they're going into a revenue splitting arrangement it may have been in their interest to establish as big a slice of the pie just before the agreement takes effect as possible.

rankourabu

AC*G does not get E+.. Just standard seats.

UA*G doesnt even get free standard seats on AC never mind better seats of which AC has almost none on wide bodies anyway.

My opups on AC have been plenty (7/14 before covid) and 1/3 so far this year. From what I hear this is more common the youd think on AC for UA elites.

Adam Smith

You replied to a comment about supposedly inequitable *G treatment.
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What are you talking about? NYC has been a huge market for AC for a very long time.

Not according to those threads on the UA forum...

RangerNS

UA lounges, UA lounge agents have been very good to me over the years.

UA flying has been mostly horrible. I don't remember how or why, but I got some side-by-side herring bone J from east coast to Texas, and it was just sad. And another time out of ORD an AC concierge got me direct back to YHZ on a UA E-something in J. Two flights: first and last. I'm survived on the popcorn I bought at the AC gate, but without IFE I was about ready to talk to my seatmate. Literally hell; I'm pretty sure the cold snack they bought from the PanAm liquidation sale.

And, of course, I simply will not fly out of EWR over the Gulf of Maine in those midget jets.

dr_torch

Gotta agree with the cow here. I've never had an issue in J with getting a drink refill with United.

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bocastephen

No, I've always had to pay, even for a basic seat, forget a premium seat, and I'm a UA 1K/*G

My mistake, it's restricted to UA MP Gold and higher, not extended to other airlines.

lsquare

I'm not sure what your problem is. My post speaks for itself. Please don't put words in my mouth.

GUWonder

This:

Running up the AC flight count into NYC may give AC+UA something to “give up” for “approval” from the regulators; and then the regulators can push the charade as if they got a ”material” concession on behalf of consumers while giving away the farm.

lsquare

​​​​​​I really do hope the regulators will block this from happening. I want less collusion and more competition.

Adam Smith

I've not put any words in your mouth. I've simply pointed out that your expectation of getting any real benefits on AC as a UA Silver is unreasonable.

AC isn't "running up the flight count". YYZ<>LGA was the 8th busiest air route in 2017-18, for instance, with over 20 flights a day in each direction, let alone YYZ-EWR and other permutations between YTO and NYC.

GUWonder

Then they are “keeping up the flight count” to trade a bit of it to get the approval to cash in on yet more governmental waivers and favors to collude at the expense of consumers?

Adam Smith

No. YTO-NYC is a competitive market. The last antitrust review of the AC-UA relationship focused on routes like YYC-IAH where they would control all, or substantially all, of the capacity.

Also, the concern around antitrust reviews tends to be that the combined entity will cut back service after the transaction. So boosting service now to cut it back later is the total opposite of what would appease competition authorities.

The whole concept is ludicrous.

GUWonder

So if they are neither running up nor keeping up the flight count to trade a bit of it to get the approval to cash in on yet more governmental waivers and favors to collude at the expense of consumers, are they dropping the flight count?

Adam Smith

Why would they drop the flight count if travel demand is rebounding?

zkzkz

I'm sorry I started this digression. I really was shocked to see the number of flights/day to LGA and EWR but it does appear it was the case in 2018. AC currently has 25 flights a day into NYC between Montreal and Toronto which seems absurd to me but they had about the same in 2018 and apparently they have in the past had as many as 240 a week in 2016 when they dropped JFK according to articles at the time.

I guess my expectations were distorted from living in Europe for the past few years where a route like this would be on a320 family planes and have 4-6 flights per day instead of regional jets every hour or two. I do understand the reasons why and I knew that was the story in N.A. but I guess I didn't understand the scale of the difference.