What makes us think we are UA's "best" customers?
 

So often we talk about how Ua "screws" those on FT, its best customers.

What makes us their best? The fact that we want to sue them over not honoring 4mile F class awards?

Because we give UA a lot of business and often at greater inconvenience and cost over their competitors? @:-)

What makes us think we are UA's "best" customers?
 

80/20 rule.

It does not make you the best. It makes you "over-entitled". J/K :p

You aren't their best customers, you are their cheapest customers. there are a small handful here that may be their best.

that is the truth :D

Unless you're GS, don't have any illusions that UA "cares" about you.

I am GS and it is quite clear that UA couldn't give a rat's a&* about me. They will happily take the 10s of thousands of dollars that I spend and then basically say "go fish" on service. I expect that this will be my last year of GS. I can take those dollars elsewhere just as easily. Their vaunted "route network" is only interesting if you happen to be flying to where it goes and no competitor does (which is pretty much nowhere) and their 787 is just another nice plane.

Just because it is inconvenient to you doesn't make you a good customer to the company.

??

I can spend, say, $300 to book on DL. Instead, I spend $500 to book on UA.

You can bet your sweet bippie that the Kettles aren't making the choice to UA in that situation. They'll book UA when it's $250.

Tell me again how my repeat business is not good for UA? :confused:

The level of apologetics for UA is amazing.

Good, just not best. There are people that do not even check DL price. ;)

Do the math
 

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While true there are lots of those folks that book expedia or travelocity or kayak and they do see the cheaper fare. Kettles don't tend to even know the options so the multi-airline sites are their likely vendor of choice. For those folks it is just a question of price and to a lesser degree convenience. (Sure spend and extra $10 to get the shorter flight.) Folks with an upfront airline preference are generally more experienced and have reason to choose that particular airline. UA is working hard at removing any reason to a priori prefer UA - not at all clear why that is a good biz model but guess we'll all get to see. For me - I'll probably watch more frequently from some other carrier's seat (that I actually buy in premium cabins) that ever in the past. Why UA thinks that is a good idea is beyond my many degrees and year of business experience.

because we've been fooled by the shiny card they send out and the blue carpet you get to board with?

That makes you good to yourself. Does it make you valuable to the company?
There's a difference between spending more and inconvenient. If you are consistently paying more than the CASM cost of carrying you on the flights you are taking - i.e. you are yield-positive in the books - then you are arguably a good customer. But that $500 ticket is barely break-even (if at all) for a transcon trip, whether DL is selling it for less or not.
Losing money on every transaction and making it up in volume is rarely a smart way to be profitable. If your transactions are net-positive revenue then it can be good for the company. If your transactions don't cover the cost of providing the service it gets a lot harder to believe you're a valuable customer to the company.

So is the inability to understand simple P/L concepts by many people.

Just showing up a lot doesn't make you a good customer. I know I'm not a good customer to the company; I'm willing to bet they lose money on me and have for years now. I can understand why they would make changes to try to push me away. I might not like it personally, but I'm not so delusional as to believe that I fit their "best" customer demographic.

Back to the math...
 

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