nova08

I thought the strategy was also for UA to hike close-in fares earlier than the others to force a higher fare on more paxs buying in the 1-7 day window.

Mike Jacoubowsky

OK, I'll contribute. I'd previously pointed out that TATL fares that I've monitored showed little evidence of "tampering." But in my focus on France I completely overlooked the fact that I cannot yet book my August SFO-MSN trip because the usual $380 r/t has been flying above $600, something I've never seen it do before for any extended period of time, and it's been up there for 2-3 months straight. Fares to MKE & ORD remain reasonable. Very strange, but maybe fits in with this thread. Competition on this route comes from AA & DL. Both AA & DL are also up in the same range.

UA may have pulled the others along with it in this gambit. Frontier is the only airline serving MSN not participating; they're sitting at $500.

Seriously, I thought people complaining about this were just blowing smoke. Now I'm not so sure. As a Plat, I have a reasonable "defense" in that I can book with saver miles and then, if a reasonable fare comes up, redeposit and pay $$$ for the ticket instead. And be that much further from elite status next year. Can't win.

krazykanuck

I was watching and pricing a flight from Houston-NYC for Labor Day. Wanted to book earlier as opposed to later since I figured a holiday weekend would be busier than usual. I wound up booking on UA but switched to a Beaumont origin rather than IAH to save about $75 on the fare and I had a $50 ecert to use up that UA had given me, so brought the net fare down a ton. Net revenue to UA is $191 excluding the taxes and ecert. Sorry I'm not sorry SMI/J.

But even today, from Aug 27-Sep 3:

DL: $269
WN: $285
UA: 6 am departure for $309
UA: rest of day is $360-429 depending on time

BH62

Even *within* UA, there can be dramatic or puzzling differences. Looking at SEA-OGG RT w/ same inbound & return flights: 6/6-13, approx $560. Push forward a week, 6/13-20, approx $1100. So much for the close-in theory?

787fan

UA seems to be succeeding in dragging others in for some routes i've been searching. Other than the LCCs, the majors seem to have followed UA into gouging land.

UA-NYC

Do ANY other carriers hammer biz travelers like UA does where the price of a 1-3 day trip is 2x-3x the price of a 4+ day trip?

Darlox

I've been noticing ridiculous UA fares from the midwest to pretty much any destination in the Northeast. Secondary airports in particular. ORD or CLE to anywhere like BTV, MHT, ALB, PVD, etc... it's not any specific route or destination, but rather pricing strategy for the entire region.

Doesn't seem like it's a close-in or far-out issue either. Check 2 weeks out:

eg:
ORD-BTV, May 19-21:
US: $470
DL: $497
AA: $502
UA: $783

ORD-MHT, May 19-21:
DL: $433
US: $452
AA: $452
UA: $513

... or look far-out, say 6 weeks:
ORD-BTV, June 23-25:
DL: $471
AA: $574
US: $574
UA: $659

The fares in general make me weep. Very nearly enough to make me get in the car and drive, for those prices. Summer road-trips really aren't that bad sometimes! But I'm just glad I'm not riding UA's carousel-of-horrors anymore, because paying THOSE fares would kill me inside.

jasonp622

I feel like the first quarter united had extremely low fares, that didn't seem to work. Maybe they are trying the opposite,

GBadger

Just booked DEN-MSN r/t last week for end of the month. UA was $400+, F9 was $215. Went with F9 -- even after you add their ridiculous fees for seat selection and carry ons, it's still significantly cheaper.

Booked DEN-BOS for July at ~$680. This one's booked on UA, as all of the airlines were showing similar prices.

DWooderson

MSY-YYZ RT June 27-29
Cheapest economy seat available:
DL: $483
US: $546
AA: $555
UA: $629
Cheapest F seat available:
DL First: $1357
US First: $2544
AA First: $3465
UA First:$2498

I've been watching this for a while, and US/AA in Y were below $500 a few weeks back, while UA has been over $600 for months.

jpc83

Looking at almost $600 IAH-STL....

mgcsinc

The vast majority of domestic fares on UA are one-way fares and thus cannot distinguish between long and short trips. On what routes are you seeing this?

Kacee

I've seen this on SFO-HNL where they will frequently only sell the M fare for trips of less than three nights, while offering as low as an L for a stay of three nights or more.

spin88

I have not understood the goal to be to hike up Close in fares, but instead to have more seats to sell close in, perhaps at a slight premium over what they are now getting, but the real goal is to tranfer traffic into higher fares. To give an example, taking a hypothetical transcon flight with 100 seats.

The old pattern would be:
20 seats - deep discount - $300 RT
40 seats - discount - $400 RT
30 seats - three to one week before flight - $600 RT
8 seats - Close in - 6 days to 2 days before - $1000 RT
2 seats - last minute, full fare - $1400 RT
= $ 50,800


What United wants to see is:
50 seats discount - $400 RT
35 Seats three to one week before flight - $610
10 seats - close in - $1020 RT
5 seats - last minute, full fare - $1420 RT.
= $58,650

What I think they will end up with (if it does not go even worse than I expect) is something like:
50 seats discount - $400 RT
28 Seats three to one week before flight at $620 RT
7 seats - close in at $1020 RT
2 seats last minute at $1420 RT
= $47,340

mgcsinc

Yes, it's true, UA (unlike some of its competitors) sells the WestCoast-Hawaii routes as r/ts. They also do it with many routes to/from IAH, and inexplicably with routes to/from PIT. But the transcons, for example, are all sold as one-ways.