SAT Lawyer

I've been seeing a lot of nearly $700 non-refundable round-trip fares on one of my main intraTexas short-haul routes. That's a lot to pass on to my clients already, but my plans change, and now it'll cost 'em another two Benjamins?

Ridiculous.

PotomacApproach

Makes sense given all the cut rate fares they're offering. But it doesn't matter if domestic changes are $150 or $200, I'll pay a greater premium than that to avoid the ancient ghetto aircraft, Soviet bread line customer service, and planes that have 1980s CRTs, but no Wi-Fi.

zoegksf

I see a lot of people balking at the $200/$300 change fee, which has to be paid upfront ala CO. Letting the ticket sit and of course will possibly lead to UA being unable to re-sell that seat at a higher cost, later. Planes going out with more empty seats as who is going to by the tickets T<1 hour. Or UA going to being more aggressive in over-sales, anti-CO, then paying out more IDB's. None of it sounds good for the bottom line. Smisek needs to pull his head out of his arse and smell the Freshpoo. These customer unfriendly things didn't work this past year and won't in the future.

What I find highly amusing is the CO die hards on here still defending this downward spiral. Rah rah CO, charge me more money because your the best in the sky. Rah rah

mduell

That math wouldn't work out unless they were averaging 1 change on every 1-2 G/N fates.

edgewood49

Try DL

UA-NYC

On what route do these "cut rate" fares exist?

Often1

+1 - Businesses average out the necessity of change fees over large #'s and are likely less price sensitive. Leisure family travelers have no choice. When something happens, they have to change and they have to pay. Few are sophisticated enough to look at these fees upfront.

Lets also not forget that within 6 months, DL and US-AA will be at $200 as well.

fieldeng

You say this like it's a certainty. Did the other airlines follow US by charging for on board sodas and putting advertisements on tray tables? No.

Have other airlines followed DL with the MQD's yet? No.

I could go on and on. The only thing airlines typically follow each other on are fares.

star_world

This is no different to what happens when one of the major US airlines tests a fare increase and waits for the others to match it or not. These happen 5-10 times a year and are initiated by UA, DL, AA, etc. The same thing will happen here - either all of those airlines will follow suit or UA will be back at the lower rates in a month.

These things happen all the time - and unlike a change fee increase, a fare increase affects everyone. It's amusing to see all the faux outrage though and threats to go to WN

There is zero room for one major US airline to be out of step with the others on pricing for a very short length of time - keep that in mind. You can forget any notion that this will impact PRASM relative to competitors or any similar metric.

entropy

we will see how long this one lasts...

like more fare increases, if other airlines don't match it, this one will go away.
we can hope so...

WineCountryUA

Any history on a legacy airline backtracking on a change fee increase?
Have seen backtracking on fares but don't remember much backtracking on fees?

777 global mile hound

This is why mergers are so beneficial for consumers

unavaca

As far as I know, WN has nothing but full fare Y available on day of departure, hence the upfare to full Y. It's really "upfare to the current fare in the market," which ends up being full Y.

emcampbe

This.

And this.

That's what i was trying to get at earlier. Either the other legacies will follow, and then its not a disadvantage. Or the others won't follow, and UA will roll it back. I don't think it'll take a month. I figure a week tops. Or maybe like any other fare increase - by Monday next week.

I don't agree with the increase, though given my change history, I have saved thousands upon thousands of $ over the years by paying discount fares, and making a change once in a while. I'm guessing I average one change every two to three years. Yes, its a bit of cash. But always well less then the cost of booking a non-refundable ticket, even if it had been at $200 for a domestic ticket all this time.

On the other hand, it'll be interesting to see if all those that talk about walking over to WN/VX actually will. Particularly VX, which still serves only a handful of destinations (I just counted 24 on their site). Sure, they have many features that passengers say they want. But no one really knows if they are actually making $ or are close to it, or if they will be able to make it in the long term.

travelinmanS

Yeah, but now I can fly from Bangkok to Delhi all on United, with a stopover in Saipan if I feel like it.