Why has UA drastically reduced Business Class seat inventory out of AUS?
Jul 21, 2013, 10:35 pm
#16
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Jul 21, 2013, 11:18 pm
#18
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Picking a random date in August, I see that UA has three ERJ-170's with 6 first class seats each, and one 737-900 with 20 first class seats. So that's 38 seats total, which is a lot more than if they had two 737's with 12 seats each.
Not sure I understand the problem here.
Not sure I understand the problem here.
Jul 21, 2013, 11:26 pm
#19
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Picking a random date in August, I see that UA has three ERJ-170's with 6 first class seats each, and one 737-900 with 20 first class seats. So that's 38 seats total, which is a lot more than if they had two 737's with 12 seats each.
Not sure I understand the problem here.
Not sure I understand the problem here.
Real meals, better trained and more sophisticated staff and pilots, not gate-checking bags, not having to walk all the way to the back of the plane to take a leak, not banging my head on the ceiling or running into errant knees and elbows..
You really don't see the distinction, DaviddesJ?
Jul 21, 2013, 11:28 pm
#20
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PMCO, there were 2.5 hubs - EWR+IAH plus a so-called CLE hanging in there, so EWR-AUS was crucial for most traffic flows.
now with UA+CO, they've added ORD+IAD that can provide connections to north/east/europe.
now with UA+CO, they've added ORD+IAD that can provide connections to north/east/europe.
Jul 21, 2013, 11:35 pm
#21
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UA has retreated in the AUS market by reducing mainline service to both EWR and IAH. Coupled with the addition of numerous all coach ERJ's. This compares to AA's almost hourly mainline service to DFW and additional direct mainline connections to West Coast, ORD and the NE.
AUS supports a fair amount of corporate and premium travel. UA's changes have made obtaining a premium seat difficult to impossible.
When will UA start competing vs shrinking? Who knows as it looks like their Hawaii strategy of establishing a subfleet of 777's with 2X3X2 seating in first is not class leading.
Until they change I will be sending $$ to AA and the competition.
^^^ agree
AUS supports a fair amount of corporate and premium travel. UA's changes have made obtaining a premium seat difficult to impossible.
When will UA start competing vs shrinking? Who knows as it looks like their Hawaii strategy of establishing a subfleet of 777's with 2X3X2 seating in first is not class leading.
Until they change I will be sending $$ to AA and the competition.
Right sizing is in the eye of the beholder. With many folks in AUS bolting to AA last year, UA needed to make some capacity changes, especially after adding SFO frequencies. So the RJs came in on the EWR route.
Upgrades have ALWAYS been hard on this route given tha the 735s alwas had 8 seats only, as well. Problem is that when you signal business travelers who can't purchase F outright that their upgrade chances are very low, they will bol for other options (like AA, DL, or even SWA)...and then you lose those above averag yielding customers, which will lead to lower yields, further downsizing etc.
At some point, UA will have to do something to entice business travelers flying AA out of AUS to come back over...and flying RJs for 4 hours in E+ without wifi and ifemisn't going to cut it.
I am flying this route myself a lot and my flight last Thu was booked 5 paid F and 1 upgrade. Several GS joined me in steerage....That situation won't last...
Upgrades have ALWAYS been hard on this route given tha the 735s alwas had 8 seats only, as well. Problem is that when you signal business travelers who can't purchase F outright that their upgrade chances are very low, they will bol for other options (like AA, DL, or even SWA)...and then you lose those above averag yielding customers, which will lead to lower yields, further downsizing etc.
At some point, UA will have to do something to entice business travelers flying AA out of AUS to come back over...and flying RJs for 4 hours in E+ without wifi and ifemisn't going to cut it.
I am flying this route myself a lot and my flight last Thu was booked 5 paid F and 1 upgrade. Several GS joined me in steerage....That situation won't last...
Last edited by iluv2fly; Jul 22, 2013 at 7:54 am Reason: merge
Jul 22, 2013, 12:45 am
#22
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Jul 22, 2013, 7:18 am
#23
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Picking a random date in August, I see that UA has three ERJ-170's with 6 first class seats each, and one 737-900 with 20 first class seats. So that's 38 seats total, which is a lot more than if they had two 737's with 12 seats each.
Not sure I understand the problem here.
Not sure I understand the problem here.
UA has retreated in the AUS market by reducing mainline service to both EWR and IAH. Coupled with the addition of numerous all coach ERJ's. This compares to AA's almost hourly mainline service to DFW and additional direct mainline connections to West Coast, ORD and the NE.
AUS supports a fair amount of corporate and premium travel. UA's changes have made obtaining a premium seat difficult to impossible.
When will UA start competing vs shrinking? Who knows as it looks like their Hawaii strategy of establishing a subfleet of 777's with 2X3X2 seating in first is not class leading.
Until they change I will be sending $$ to AA and the competition.
AUS supports a fair amount of corporate and premium travel. UA's changes have made obtaining a premium seat difficult to impossible.
When will UA start competing vs shrinking? Who knows as it looks like their Hawaii strategy of establishing a subfleet of 777's with 2X3X2 seating in first is not class leading.
Until they change I will be sending $$ to AA and the competition.
Jul 22, 2013, 9:19 am
#25
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Eliminating mainline aircraft out of AUS started about one year ago. Ask any of the gate agents and they hear complaints about this all day long. I'm tired of the regionals, and I've started to use Southwest or Delta rather than maintaining loyalty to UA. When UA delivers a mainline product for most flights, I'll return. Making matters worse, the regionals don't update their time schedule like the mainlines do. More than once I've shown up to the gate for an "on-time" flight on the mobile app, only to find out the inbound aircraft won't arrive for another hour.
Jul 22, 2013, 11:46 am
#26
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This is probably true, although it happens on mainline too. You do know that you can look at the flight status page on united.com to see where the aircraft is coming from, and then check the actual status of that plane (either on united.com or on a 3rd party site like flightstats.com or flightaware.com)? Of course, there's always the theoretical chance they could swap aircraft to avoid the delay.
Jul 22, 2013, 2:12 pm
#27
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The problem is not the number of business seats available, it is the proportion of BusinessFirst to Economy on an aircraft. If you are getting UDU regularly, then UA figures they have too high a mix of BusinessFirst since not enough passenger are buying them or purchasing an upgrade, so they will reduce the proportion. I suspect that the proportion of domestic BusinessFirst has slowly been shrinking over the years as fewer companies allow employees to fly in domestic BusinessFirst and upper executives that used to fly it now use private jets.
Jul 22, 2013, 2:21 pm
#28
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It's a lot more complicated than that, because in many cases the pricing for domestic first has become more reasonable and so they are selling more seats for that reason. Also, they sell more instant upgrades, which you can think of as essentially discounted first class. The demand is not static, it varies with the price, so there are two interrelated variables for them to control (price and number of seats), not just one.