How many are REALLY leaving UA? [2014 edition]
 

... I will not purchase a ticket on the "new UA" in 2014. I'll fly LAS-DEN via SLC on DL or just take WN. For those sticking with UA... Your welcome you can have my FC seat.

It is such a shame to see a great carrier turn into this. The new UA is Texas Int. or People Express. Someone from the former UA should have screamed "HOUSTON - WE HAVE A PROBLEM". I guess the folks in Houston got the message and bought a roll of duct tape at the 99 cent store to keep UA flying.

And I'll be one of those former UA flyers sticking around on the UA board, looking to see how travels on UA in 2014 continue to enhance travels on a "first class" carrier. I'll also look to see the next reports on UAL profits, compared to DAL, LUV, ALGT and Spirit.

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...x#.UsaBNbTMsv0

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=U...rce=undefined;

I spent a few dollars on UA last year (like 4 flts a week in FC). This year the money will be going to other carriers. Again "enjoy the friendly skies". And keep my FC seat warm, as I might return, if UA returns to the airline it once was.

Moderator's Note:
The previous edition of this thread can be found here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...eaving-ua.html

iluv2fly
Moderator, UA

This is just another post long on hyperbole and short on details...

UA is what it is. It may improve in the areas that are important to you, or it may not.

Ranting about duct tape and the Hou Crew really adds nothing to the discussion.

For the first time in over a decade, I will have no status on UA in 2014. I still have a balance of miles, and will keep my Chase United card until I burn through the miles (to keep the balance active.) I started out as a Premiere Executive for a few years and then was 1K for six years in a row.

1) What did you like most about fkaUA or fkaCO?

I used to like the route network, especially being able to fly IAD to FRA nonstop. I also used to fly BWI to LAX or SFO two to three times per month.

2) What changes have had the greatest negative impact on you?

The cuts in service from BWI - I live north of BWI so getting to IAD is a pain. BWI now is mostly stopovers coast-to-coase. I also am not fond of Business First. When I fly first, I am old-fashioned, and I want a real first class product. I also thought about dropping back to 1P but the spend on upgrades and the reduced mileage earn just made me decide not to do that.

3) What remains about the current UA that makes it hard for you to leave?

Nothing - I stopped revenue flying on UA in 2013.

4) What airlines are you considering switching to? Or kayaking?

I mostly fly WN now for domestic for convenience. If I have to have a stopover, the choice of airlines does not matter as much now. I fly LH for IAD to FRA when I need to. I also flew Condor BWI to FRA, but that was a seasonal run and is sort of the "Southwest of the Atlantic Route".

5) What benefits / improvements do you expect on your new airline?

I have come to expect that I should not expect much in the way of benefits or improvements, but at least with WN when I fly for work it is business select. That basically means that I earn award travel faster (more points per booking.)

6) What aspects of the new airline make it hard for you to switch to them?

I would like to have a real first product domestically, but after I arrive at my destination I quickly forget about that.

How does that feel?

For many here, it seems like elite status is intertwined with their existence... Not exactly DYKWIA, but something which makes us feel more important or secure in our identity.

The rational part of your decision making process is sound.

How are you handling the irrational part?

Can you advise me of what the winning lottery numbers will be next week as well?

We already know what Smisek has done. I'll take an unknown quantity to a proven airline destroyer any day.

Yep. Not too hard to figure out you can steal a lot of passengers from UA with little effort these days.

Yep.

1) What did you like most about fkaUA

Loyalty was acknowledged and rewarded. Now it is spit on.

2) What changes have had the greatest negative impact on you?

Non-existent domestic upgrades. Upgrade waitlists for international routes. Shrinking route structure. Regional jets. A mess of a boarding process. Lack of recognition of Million Miler status. Poor customer service. Poor meals. Less than reliable flight operations. SHARES. Gutting of Mileage Plus. Lack of saver reward space on international flights in F and C. Horrible United Clubs. Stupid name of "Business First".

3) What remains about the current UA that makes it hard for you to leave?

Nothing. I'm gone to the dAArk side.

4) What airlines are you considering switching to?

AA domestic. CX international. LH to Europe.

5) What benefits / improvements do you expect on your new airline?

Domestic upgrades and lack of disdain for choosing that carrier.

6) What aspects of the new airline make it hard for you to switch to them?

Starting with no status. Looking for Parker to announce a status match program for 1Ks in the new year.

Well I used to feel like as a 1K I had "status"--I just felt like I was treated a little better than general pax without having to ask for anything. Pre and post-merger, I always had great upgrade rate (probably because not a lot of 1Ks and GS flying to/from BWI) as well. After the merger, it seemed to me that I just became another passenger as a 1K. I never asked for anything extra and I am not a complainer so switching to WN doesn't really seem like much of a change at all.

I always thought the big jump from 1P to 1K made 1K a little more exclusive but having four tiers just seems too much. Maybe they should have had 25K, 66K, and 100K goals for 2P, 1P, and 1K.

By the way my daughter loves the change because it means the family has flown nonstop BWI-MCO to go to Disney and Universal twice last year on WN on award tickets.

Those were some expensive 'Award' tickets! :)

Priceless, I am sure though.

You are indeed observant, samurai.

There are also many here who think an airline has changed, when in fact they were naive.

That is one of the most ridiculous statements I have read in some time.

Details, where do I start. CO was a great airline when it was based at LAX and run by Robert F. Six. UA was a good, reliable airline until it was merged with CO. The Houston crew came along and now you have the "new UA".

UA - the only carrier charging for booze on overseas trips in Y. Devaluation of miles this year. Many FA's have an attitude and are lazy. Poor meals. Poor on-time performance. Planes not cleaned properly. Not enough mainline flts. Elimination of NRT-BKK. Stock under performing other USA carriers. Still running as two airlines. Crappy movie/music choices (when available). Chanel 9 not available or turned off. Some employees still wearing CO uniforms (mechanics I saw). Rude, unprofessional help when calling Res. Removal of Starbucks coffee. Broken cashews. Garbage lounges. International flts = service is the worst, compared to other US carriers and almost every foreign carrier.

My 6-8 domestic FC flts each week I took on UA in 2013 will be going to DL, AA or WN. My International travel will move to DL or Foreign carriers.

I will continue to read the posts on the UA forum as I still have miles to burn on UA. This company needs new leadership.

Many employees at UA are great people and do a fantastic job. Keep your chin up! Get rid of the bad apples (if the Union will allow it).

For those on the upgrade list - you can have my FC seat. Cheers! :)

I dont get a lot of the whining. I just made 1K literally today, and have been Platinum for most of the year. I have found UAs service to be pretty darned good, particularly at the United Club service desks.

Recent customer service experiences include:
1. Being 1 hour late for flight because I slept through my alarm. I got rebooked and was given a 1st class upgrade at no charge. I got to my destination at the same time as my original scheduled flight.
2. Coming home my connection into IAH was late due to weather. I arrived in IAH 45 minutes late and there was no way I was getting home that night. I was booked into first class the next morning and I was still given a hotel voucher despite the delay being weather related.
3. Needed to escape a city prior to a huge storm coming in. I showed up at airport 3 days before my scheduled departure date. Explained the situation and I was rebooked on the next flight out of town with no change fees.

My experience has been good and status does count.

It seems to me everybody is just whining because they dont get as many free FC upgrades. If it happens, great. If it doesnt... Economy+ really isnt that bad.

Um, no, it's a lot more than that. Did you just start flying UA in 2013? If so, that may explain your POV.

same here ^^^

Every announcement recently from UA has been about ways the airline will cut back benefits/service or impose greater restrictions on customers, while other carriers are announcing new products they're excited about.

A business can choose to offer less and charge more, and likewise customers can choose with whom to do business.

As a business owner myself, I can't see what good could ever come from giving loyal clients the impression that their business wasn't valued - perceived or real - unless I was going under and making a last minute cash-out.

You and me both!

2004: 1K
2005: 1K
2006: 1P
2007-2008: 2P
2008-2010: 1P
2011: 2P
2012: 1P/Gold
2013: Silver

Flew 19 PQS last year, only 7 of which were on UA (thanks, US Airways!) and something like 10,900 PQM. Spent most of my travel on American and was much happier there.

1) What did you like most about fkaUA or fkaCO?

The best customer service around (Oh, you're 1K? We'll do anything for you!). Fast IRROPS handling. A written policy guaranteeing amenities to 1Ks in IRROPS. Easily navigated reservations systems. Proactive apologies and (occasionally) compensation when things went wrong. A CEO that didn't act like a celebrity by inserting himself into every safety video and didn't use lawyer double speak (Enhancements? Yeah, right). E500s as upgrade instruments, which preserved first class integrity. 1K Bags. 1K Desk.

2) What changes have had the greatest negative impact on you?

The gradual but incessant cuts. Very difficult to use reservation system when doing anything but the simplest tasks. Downgrading of domestic first class meals (no new menu changes in the last 18 months, cut backs in quantity and quality). Loss of 8 CR-1s (RPUs). The feeling that the new airline considers 1K to be just another over-entitled group of elites (when compared to pre-merger UA). Non-merged pilot groups leading to massive delays when things go wrong and no apologies or compensation offered (experienced several 4+ hour delays in 2013). Almost guaranteed chance of flying on a RJ at some point if connecting.

3) What remains about the current UA that makes it hard for you to leave?

I'd say the ability to transfer via Europe for awards to the Pacific, but that's going away. I'd say finally learning to read the flight loads in Expert Mode properly to increase my upgrade percentages, but I get better upgrade percentages on AA without having to do this. I'd say free SDC, but I almost never used it.

4) What airlines are you considering switching to? Or kayaking?

AA

5) What benefits / improvements do you expect on your new airline?

AA has an efficient and quick reservations system. EXP frontline service has been beyond exceptional. NO RJs on my most frequent route (thank goodness!). I've consistently received the best meals out of any airline I've flown domestically. Ability to reserve meals is an added bonus. Even if I don't get an upgrade, I get a choice of a free food and a free drink item in Y. Somewhat unrelated, DFW is a beautiful airport. The Admiral Clubs are very pretty on the inside and have more amenities like made-to-order food and internet-enabled computer stations.

6) What aspects of the new airline make it hard for you to switch to them?

The uncertainty of the merger is a big risk, but so far AA has indicated they're retaining reservations systems, meal windows, branding, etc from PMAA. All of which was unlike the CO takeover of UA, so I'm hopeful. Time will tell if I am indeed correct.

Flying domestic all three majors are pretty good getting you to/from biz meetings on time and accommodating IRROPS. Biz people who do this are underrepresented here because of the negativity and the frankly foolish attempts to analyse the business..you will see about 3x more lurkers than users on the UA Fora.

For the last decade UA was very generous letting people fly Star Alliance partners cheap on miles, with credit card, MR, etcg those days are over per a partner devaluation of OCT 2013.

The whining is mostly the party hangover from that event.

Cover your keyboard in plastic when you read threads on revenue management and pricing...there is some great stuff there.

Translation: I've just recently made elite status. Woohoo!!

Nonetheless, I haven't been stung by issues that travelers who've been elite for a few decades have. Perhaps when I've spent as much time flying as they have my perspective might change.

Until then, I'll just marvel that they don't always see things as I do.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Dave

Perfect example.

The other thing coming into play is the airlines are looking beyond status into spend profiles for benefits and customer service. Delta was first with this program which, as I understand it , takes the UA GS model and looks for HVF that aren't captured by the status metrics per se, and also looks for LVF.

If you call in 8 times to force your RPU and are 1K on 1.9 cpm spend and email for comp because your wife ate your puppy, nada

If you are on a 30 cpm spend track and you call because your kid had IRROPS with no status, you might find a GS agent calls your kid on her cell and talked her through it.

1) What did you like most about fkaUA or fkaCO?

Never flew CO and have been flying primarily United only the last four years or so. (Was using other US carriers prior to then.)

2) What changes have had the greatest negative impact on you?

The domestic United Clubs have gone downhill over the past few years, and I didn't think they could get much worse.:)

Other than that, not sure that I have been negatively affected. I almost never use award tickets so the recent devaluation is not much of a problem for me. Having to ticket everything on 016 stock might be a problem in 2014 but others here believe United can ticket anything on 016. PQD won't be a problem for us.

3) What remains about the current UA that makes it hard for you to leave?

Their international network and the ability to consistently upgrade to lie flat seating on TPAC and TATL flights. I almost always have some flexibility in scheduling and using instruments can almost always upgrade to BF, at least for the longest segments of our trips. I believe we have only flown a couple of pure award tickets on United (emergency domestic situations).

If not, I'll pay full fare for BF a couple of times a year. For domestic trips, I don't really care that much if I fly in an RJ for three hours. Even a 5 hour RJ wouldn't bother me too much. But for an overnight 8 - 17 hour trip, I want to lie flat (my wife even more so). And I don't really care that much about the meals or lack thereof ... I'ver never flown airlines for the cuisine or for the amenities kit.

Our daughter lives about 5 miles from EWR so a number of daily CHS-EWR flights are convenient for us (although in the summer United Express is anything but :)).

4) What airlines are you considering switching to? Or kayaking?

The new AA/US Air. Based in CHS, I have to fly to either IAD, EWR, ORD or IAH to go anywhere. We're doing more S. American travel in the next few years, and flying through Miami (AA has CHS-MIA flights) makes a little more sense than going through IAH.

5) What benefits / improvements do you expect on your new airline?

Some people here have commented that AA is a big upgrade in terms of flight experience. I have flown US Air quite a bit over the years, and haven't seen that much difference with United. Haven't been in AA lounges (ever) but the domestic US Air lounges I've visited were marginally better than domestic United Clubs (which sets a rather low bar). Fortunately in EWR and IAD we can use LH. Skytrax rates AA, US Air, UA, DL three star carriers and the fact that they rate ANA, Asiana, CX, SQ, and Malaysia airlines 5 stars gives credibility to their ratings (to me). So I'm skeptical that AA is a big improvement (or even an improvement in terms of what I want as a customer).

6) What aspects of the new airline make it hard for you to switch to them?

No nonstops on US/AA to EWR.

1) What did you like most about fkaUA or fkaCO?
As a UA 1K and GS for as long as there have been 1Ks and GS...and PE before that...the personal service and the "can do" attitude of the UA staff. As I was told a number of times, if it is not against the law, we will do it for you...and they did!! They made travel easy!

2) What changes have had the greatest negative impact on you?
Diminishing reliability (on all levels)The loss of the ability for staff to make things "right" when they go wrong...which has happened to me more since the merger than in the previous 40+ years of flying UA and a lot of other carriers...combined!

3) What remains about the current UA that makes it hard for you to leave?
My UA "angels"...UA employees who I have known for years...many who have become personal friends!

4) What airlines are you considering switching to? Or kayaking?
After 35 years of loyalty to UA, we are Kayaking...and have enjoyed excellent service on AA, NZ, BA, AF, SQ and others without the "drama" we were experiencing on the new UA.

5) What benefits / improvements do you expect on your new airline?
Good and personal customer service...a "can do" attitude...and we are receiving it!

6) What aspects of the new airline make it hard for you to switch to them?
New airline procedures and processes...UA was like a pair of comfortable old slippers...not the newest or fanciest but reliable and very comfortable. It felt like...well...home!

As if we need another piece of anecdotal evidence of HVFs leaving UA...I flew from LAX to LHR in F last month (first time in over a year...I usually fly NZ in C on this route) and I had one of my "angels" (who I have flow with 100s of times) as purser and FA in F...only two seats occupied in F and I was told that I was the only GS on the aircraft (C and Y were full) and that GSs and 1Ks had all but evaporated this route in 2013... very noticeable...and that "Hollywood" had essentially abandoned UA on this route. I have been flying this route monthly since PA had it...it was always full of HVFs and Hollywood types...I guess no longer...Sad, Sad, Sad!

I don't disagree that there is a lot of pointless whining here. However, your analysis is too simplistic also. There are a lot of successful businesses that value good customers and make plenty of money doing it largely via high quality customer service (think Nordstrom in retailing).

I have no issues with UA adding dollar qualifications for elite levels - makes sense. I don't have issues with them trying to sell first class seats. However, their overall customer service is quite a bit worse today that it was in the past for customers like me who actually buy expensive tickets. Their reliability is worse, their on-board service is worse, their IRROPs handling is worse, their phone handling is worse, and, yes, the value of things like elite status and miles is worse.

As a result my buying patterns have changed a lot to UA's detriment and my benefit in an, I think, rational response to this degradation. I just bought a cheap fare to Hawaii made even cheaper using an "oops" cert from UA from my last trip to Hawaii and upgraded that with a cert upgrade. Cheap first class trip. I also just finished a trip where I bought last minute first class on Delta, and I'm planning my next two trans cons, one of which will be a first class purchase on AS and the other probably a first class purchase on AA. In the past both of those would have gone to UA. I don't pretend to understand UA's business model but I will observe that any model that incentivizes me (a many year GS) to buy low cpm tickets with UA and direct high cpm tickets to their competition due entirely to the quality of their customer service and product seems to me a strange one.

So while there is a lot of noise on this forum from folks that are purely motivated by the mileage equation and elite chase, there are also those of us who pay for good service and do not see they are getting their value any longer from UA. I hope to someday understand the strange world in which that is savvy business by UA's current management.

1) What did you like most about fkaUA or fkaCO?

Very good and in my experience consistent premium cabin service on TATL and TPAC flights (which I realize is a significant YMMV based on crews). Good flight protection and irregular operations handling even for a mid level (50K) traveler. Good phone and in-person customer service. Good clubs with reasonable - though not great - offerings and superior customer service.

2) What changes have had the greatest negative impact on you?

I'm not sure if employees are unhappy, unempowered, or frustrated by changes/systems, etc., but it shows in a decline in customer service. Passengers are unhappy too. I suppose I had 15 or 20 travel experiences with United from March 2012 to mid-2013 and they were just...unpleasant. I'd settle for "uneventful."

Prior and anticipated cuts (food service, clubs). Greater utilization of Express aircraft: taking the last flight out of Houston into an outstation after an ERJ has done a day of 6-8 30 minute turns has caused me lots of late arrivals.

3) What remains about the current UA that makes it hard for you to leave?

E+. Good frequencies into smaller Texas and Louisiana cities. I'm also at about 850K lifetime and lifetime status would be an incentive to stick around.

4) What airlines are you considering switching to? Or kayaking?

Kayaking. Lowest economy fare is required for domestic work travel anyway and I'll take the lowest discounted F for personal, which AA, DL, and AS usually offer competitively. I'll pay a few extra $ to get AS miles (thus AS, AA, or DL).

5) What benefits / improvements do you expect on your new airline?

Better customer service (principally AS), paying less.

6) What aspects of the new airline make it hard for you to switch to them?

Tenuous relationships between AS and DL/AA. US/AA merger. Based on my experience and location/travel pattern, AS will always be my primary. If and when things calm down at UA, I'll probably be back but won't go out of my way or pay more to fly them as I used to.

Dear United:

You are Welcome.

Sincerely,

All the thoughtful FlyerTalkers who have contributed to this thread

FWIW, I had well over 30cpm spend on UA in 2013 and had (my only) three complaints to 1KVoice/customer appreciation completely unanswered.

I can understand that some people have knee-jerk contrarian responses due to the overwhelming negativity on this forum, but ignoring that the negativity results from actual negative experiences and deciding to lash out at FT'ers who have had those negative experiences is at least as unhelpful. As pdx1M pointed out, there are many reasons that UA represents a poor value to fliers including HVFs, and that's why BA/AA will get almost the entirety of the travel that I spent on UA last year.

Is the latter a true example?

Nailed it.

My problem with PQD isn't that it's been instituted. My problem with is it that they're demanding more and continuously giving less in return for those increased demands. If the experience is enhanced positively due to PQD - that's one thing. If they're going to continue to cut the experience - no thanks, I'll pass.

UA's within its right to ask "what have you done for me lately." However, it shouldn't be surprised when customers ask them the same question, realize it's done nothing or made things worse for them, and then see them leave for greener pastures. It cuts both ways.

This is a very valid point.

The reason, IMO, that they will be surprised is that the HouCrew doesn't see how people CAN go to greener pastures. What other pastures are there when you hub at IAH, CLE, EWR and GUM??

Dave

I suspect that if one does the actual math there are more travelers that fly in aggregate from non-hubs than from hubs. For those of us that don't live in a highly captured hub (ATL, MIA, EWR - tho other choices for NYC, IAH, ORD, SFO, CLE) we are almost always (unless flying to a hub) going to have to connect. In that case, it really makes no difference. The current UA management seems to not see that based on their approach to competition. If I have to connect then where you do it often has little impact on travel time. An extreme example - I was just looking at PSP-DCA and the difference between connections that look "straight" and a rather weird looking PSP-SEA-DCA on AS maxed out at about 1.5 hours for the departure times I needed. Service levels and value/cost really come into play for most of us. It really takes an amazing level of obliviousness to the customer base you serve to understand so little of them.

Agree that that's a good way to look at it. I do understand the pain that many travelers have experienced under the new mgmt. I personally have been generally happy with the service and perks on UA this year (mostly TATL), so I'm not ready to jump ship. UA has compared reasonably well with both BA (AA partner) and VS (Delta partner) which I've flown in business also this year (to burn miles). No great motivation to jump ship.

I like the recent development at UA with R space opening up a few days before international flights (it seems) too

Problem is, most other airlines have hubs within reasonable distances of those (except for GUM). Between DL and US/AA, you have JFK, ORD, PHL, CVG (sorta), DTW, etc).

This plays into pdx1M's comment:

I agree with this. Outside of hub captives, where connections occur doesn't matter as much as there aren't going to be that many nonstops, except to hubs. BWI, for example, outside of the WN domination, is pretty much equal amongst the remaining airlines. In most cases, it doesn't matter much whether I connect in SLC, DEN, or PHX in the west or EWR, PHL, ATL, CLT, or JFK in the east. Most get me there in more or less the same amount of time.

If I want to go to the west coast, UA used to have decent service to SFO and LAX. Now, it's practically nonexistent, which makes UA a lot less attractive compared to the others. With service times being equal, it becomes more of where I get the best value for my money.

Being tied to US at the moment, I've done my TPACs on UA the last couple years. In Y on the couple occasions I flew them, *G treatment wasn't much different than I would have gotten on UA, with the exception of missing E+ and a small chance at an upgrade if I were a 1K instead of a CP. I paid for C on the TPACs so I didn't miss anything at all. Sadly, what I saw wasn't beckoning me to come back.

PQDs aren't an issue with paid C TPACs - I can get what I need for 1K on 2 trips. The problem UA's facing is if I'm not seeing the value of what they're offering when I'm actually paying for the perks, why would I want to park my butt on their planes repeatedly to try to get them for free?

Now that US is tied with AA, I don't have to give them anything.

very measured comments here. I can't help but think any smart company would be sifting through this forum as a free means to survey audience response to their product. Comparing this against scientifically surveyed views of the silent majority out there would suggest precisely where the company needed to fix things and where it was working properly.

Surely, the stockholders in United are lurking here to get a 'no holds barred' look at how well United is doing in its customer base's eyes. And how well the CEO is actually running the company. As a stockholder, I certainly would be.

Thanks. Sadly I don't think UA is listening to these types of input. I tried saying pretty much the same thing to them through various 1-1 channels including UA Insider over the past couple of years as I saw my own purchase patterns start to change. I got either "tough" or simply silence. Not even the courtesy of a response in the case of UAI. You would think that someone who spent 100's of thousands of dollars over years of being a GS and who now consciously books away from UA unless I have some special deal or there is simply no alternative would be worth having a chat with to at least understand why the change. However, I have seen this type of behavior before and it comes of a culture so convinced it is right about something that it cannot allow itself to take inputs that might contradict their own views. When I have seen it in other business settings (and even been a part of it myself I am sorry to admit) it NEVER has come out well. Reality is a harsh teacher to those who put their fingers in their ears and chant na-na-na. Unfortunately for us (and for UA actually) reality is also a very slow teacher and these types of behaviors have to persist until real damage is done before folks like boards and stockholders wake up to them. So unlike others here I don't really have any hope of regime change at UA anytime soon because cultures that get this insular also develop amazing defenses and staying power.

As a stockholder, the most important place to look is at your monthly statement from your broker...

^^^^

I keep wondering if UA's lack of non-institutional ownership, less than 4% vs. an industry average of 42%, is the cause or the result of market expectations being skewed. Maybe it's easier for them to convince a small number of key analysts to believe in their strategy than it would be with a broader distribution of shareholders.

I think all of us will have to accept less on the perk side, given the cost drivers brought on my low fares. Your triumph taking your business somewhere else will be short-lived when the economics catch up with any main carrier with a global reach.

Its a queer composite of folks here on FT, and not one useful for gauging customer satisfaction. There are the embittered, the disenfranchised, the Jeff- apologists, the whiners, and the I didn't get both of my FC meals all wrapped into one. Its also well <1% of flyers represented, and most decidedly NOT a random sample.

Industry average of 42%?

What industry are you referring to, or was this a rectilinear calculation?

Inst Ownership %
UAL: 97%
ALK: 99%
LUV: 82%
DAL: 91%

I don't know how this is possible, but according to NASDAQ JBLU is 102% institutional owned...

AAL is too new (?) to have ownership listed.

A classic FUD argument: "My competitor's product may be better than mine, but soon it will be just as bad, so don't bother switching."

Out of curiosity, if UA was now better than its competitors, rather than worse, would you be arguing that the others will catch up to it soon? Therefore no one should ever bother switching their loyalties? Or do you just feel that loyalty to any single airline is now pointless?