rgrunnah

Curious if you smarter guys and gals can help me figure this riddle out.

For years when I'd fly AUS-EWR, CO (and UA after the merger, for a while) used 737s with at least 12 business class seats, and getting an upgrade was fairly common for 1K.

Lately, however, almost all planes on the route are RJ's or A319's (with 8 business class seats). There are now 4 nonstops a day, which I realize they need to fly RJ's on for a couple of them because increased frequency requires less seats.

But why are they penalizing higher revenue business and frequent flyers by restricting the daily business class availability on non-RJ planes to only 16 total seats? Isn't that a poor business decision that could drive people on this route to AA or Delta?

One thought is that there used to be only 2 nonstop NYC area flights (CO and AA), and now I think there are 5 (Delta, UA, Jetblue, AA, and Southwest); so perhaps UA is making less money on the route since they're not a major player out of AUS - so they're like "screw it"?

Duke787

I don't know enough about the AUS market to provide a complete opinion but my armchair analysis focuses on your statement above. Having lots of empty seats to give lots of upgrades would suggest excess capacity on the route. I would read this as UA reducing capacity to drive prices higher and have better revenue numbers from AUS. Perhaps the AUS market is strong for business travelers but not necessarily for F business travelers (the theory being if they were traveling internationally they'd be flying J/F once they get to IAH and wouldn't be flying via EWR for international travel with IAH right there / will put up with Y for the short hop whereas traveling domestic even to EWR is a short enough flight that people will generally put up with Y). The downside for us as customers is fewer F seats, but if those seats were selling (as opposed to being primarily free upgrades) they wouldn't have gotten rid of them and downgauged the aircraft.

Again purely my own speculation / analysis

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Right-sizing the cabin. If UA is giving too many seats in First to CPUs, maybe they decided to adjust the available seats. If you think DL and AA don't make fleet adjustments, you're mistaken. DL used to have a ton of First seats to DFW, ATL, and SLC from IAH. Now they're mainly regional jets (albeit, DFW mainly because they de-hubbed there).

Tracer_SEA

Well, this is one of those merger benefits (on the cost saving side for UA) -- it sounds like there isn't a high demand for paid F in the EWR-AUS market, and rather than give away a lot of upgrades they right-sized the aircraft to the market by bringing in UA Airbuses and moving the CO 737s to markets with higher paid F demand

A similar thing has happened with EWR-DFW, btw

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I will rue the day when they right-size the west coast to Hawaii market - there'd be two rows (maybe one) of First in a 757 LAX-OGG. Luckily for this 1K, that would require a sub-fleet. I can already see the food fight in a 4-seat cabin - "I'm sorry we only have 3 beef and 1 pasta loaded"

3Cforme

Delta still does. Looking at tomorrow's schedule, IAH-MEM is CRJs, but everything else -- IAH-ATL/LGA/DTW/SLC/MSP/CVG -- is a 2-class RJ with a 9 or 12 F seats, or mainline with 12 or 16. AUS also gets Delta love; only the AUS-MEM route lacks an F cabin.

Bulldog83

looking through my archives, I flew ewr-aus five times between 2009 and 2011 - 3 times on a 735, once on a 73g, and once on a 738 (Monday morning flight). Looks like the rjs are new, but they seem to be like replacing the 735s (with an added frequency, since I think there used to be only 3 flights a day).

AAExPlat

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...

pigx5

It's Right sizing so they can drive away people who want real F and mainline to other airlines such as AA/DL. Then, there will be lower demand for paid F, they can change the flights to EMB145/CRJ200/Q400 to do further right sizing. It is what the new company looking for. MCI has similar situation. There were 757s, A320 and A319 with CRJ700s before.
Now they cut the 757, reduce the frequency of A320/A319 and replace most CRJ700 to EMB 145/Q400. It's right sizing so people can choose AA or DL without a second thought. DL put more mainlines to MCI and it's the company to make money .......

bldr1k

Smisek doesn't believe this and every action he is taking is about minimizing costs and not giving away a dime - even if retains profitable customers.

Time will tell if he is right or wrong. So far he has been more wrong then right on most of his actions.

sinoflyer

Maybe AUS will be the right market for the EMB-175s when they begin entering the fleet in 2014. At the end of the day, I still prefer mainline, but I'll wait and see where the E175s will be positioned before assessing how UACO sees AUS within the system.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I don't care about tomorrow's schedule. As a former Gold Medallion flyer based in Houston, I can guarantee The number of available First seats out of Houston is down FROM WHAT IT USED TO BE. Plus, they're running mostly regional jets when it used to be almost all mainline. The point I was making was that airlines change their aircraft mix, and Delta has out of IAH. Or are you telling us Delta hasn't? And are you extending that to Austin - Delta hasn't changed their aircraft mix there either, and they won't?

mduell

AA and DL offer single daily flights to JFK... no more domestic first seats than UA offers to EWR.

Kacee

This is the industry trend. Premium product on a small number of high value routes (transcons and int'l) and crap everywhere else. It sucks, but that's just where thing are moving. And we can't just blame airline management, much of this is reaction to passengers choosing their flights based only on price. WN is hugely successful, and they don't even have an F cabin.

AAExPlat

That is what UA is already flying between AUS and EWR....