LHR Wannabee

When are the PS aircraft going to show up on United.com? Just checked a few dates in November and December and only 2 757's as options each way (which I think is same as the past)/

Kacee

If you check the seat maps, you will see they all show ps or int'l 752s.

WineCountryUA

No Y/B upgrades on PS flights.

claaaaaydavis

Very bummed about this. Another short sighted move by the HouCrew. I loved the small comforts of the JFK terminal, felt like an actual premium service. Going into EWR, even with a polished terminal can't match that.

adambadam

I think one thing that has been overlooked a lot of this thread is what this does to passenger behavior for domestic flights that were using EWR (and SFO and LAX, in that order, to lesser extents) as a connecting point. If I am flying SFO-XXX-BDL for example, does this make me want to connect in EWR more or less. If I was in paid J, absolutely. In Y, well perhaps not so much if I was hoping to bag a CPU.

There is also a lot of pricing considerations. My guess is a very large bulk of SFO/LAX-JFK traffic was O&D (at least for the UA flights), I am sure there is still a lot of O&D SFO/LAX-EWR, but with UAs hub operations in EWR it is definitely significantly less. If you are trying to market the ps route as an up-market, premium experience, I find that it would be hard to sustain those prices for your non-O&D crowd that are competing on multiple routes with various connections across the country at lower prices.

fly18725

If a service is profitable, why would they care about the associated cost?

Air Houston

Agree completely, but this is FlyerTalk - where people go hunting for guest lounge access so they can load up on humus and dried out dinner rolls to save the cost of a cheeseburger at the airport Wendy's.

rjque

OK, this made me laugh. It's been years since I've been to EWR, but when I flew CO out of there, the employees were the worst in the system. They were horrific.

jamesinclair

Amtrak owns the tracks, they have priority over NJT (ie, they give themselves dispatching priority). What I proposed isnt new or out of line at all. Amtrak already is significantly faster between EWR and NYP than NJT

Theres nothing illegal about United working with Amtrak to get more trains stopping at EWR, and expanding the codeshare partnership to include ticketing into NYC Penn.

Phil Level

So.... when do we call the other airlines offering LAX-JFK to inquire about a status match?

Since 2007, I fly LAX-JFK-LAX about once a month, mostly for business, but 2-3 times a year with the family (party of 4 or 5).

What does this mean to me?

I will definitely be trying other airlines on LAX-JFK
I might try UA LAX-EWR. To date, I have not after reading the EWR reports here on FT.

With regard the issues of transport from Manhattan (my NYC place is west side near Lincoln Center), my question is for the FT Mods. Doesn't this discussion really belong in another thread? Rather than post my own experience, I hope the mods will close this thread to transportation discussion, or better yet move those comments to an appropriate thread. Let's keep this one to UA's decision to terminate PS at JFK.

jasondc

Can fly business class on LH to EWR then ps to SFO. Or if the A380 is that important they should probably be flying nonstop FRA-sfo anyway on LH.

chinatraderjmr

RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!

JFK transcons are all that's left of my UA travel. Let's see how many are still happy with this move after waiting an hour for baggage delivery. Sorry to say but IMO EWR is a second rate budget airport. It's a real shame UA will have absolutely NO service to Americas premier International airport

DL (who I am no fan of) has proved without a doubt that FF programs are not the priority of the "average" customer. If it was, DL planes would be empty. I for one am not schlepping out to NJ, getting lost in crowds, dealing with EWRs famous delays and waiting an hour for luggage delivery just for the sake of my MP account.

STUPID MOVE UNITED............in the short run, maybe a good business decision but a better decision would have been to build up JFK service (or does UA admit it can't compete with DL or AA??)

spin88

I think you are right about what UA management expects, but I don't think that this is what they will see.

Much of the "premium" traffic will go to OALs, and it will not just hurt UA ex-NYC, what it will really hurt with is corporate business in SFO/LAX who will not want to fly into EWR, necessitating a change of carrier, likely for all of their business. B6 will get some, but the bigger share will be airlines with presences in SFO/LAX, VX, DL, and AA.

But suddenly dumping more planes into SFO/LAX-EWR is NOT going to help with Y fares. Like the premium passagners, many will not shlep over to EWR, so UAL will have basically its existing customer base. That will not help it raise fares, and instead I expect issues wtih the PS birds with a lighter Y cabin. UAL will not be able to get the yields it wants. And assuming UA tries to command higher prices? Well the fungible traffic (lower Manhatten, Midtown West) can always go to JFK if/when UA wants more to fly ex-EWR.

I don't see anything good in this for UA, its an admission of failure, and nothing else. Everyone who has claimed UA was doing fine with NYC corporate share was smoking something. UA is loosing the battle for business traffic at LAX and ex-NYC, and to a smaller extent ex-SFO, and that is why PS went from being a money maker, to a money looser.

and P.s. the press response has not exactly been so rah, rah for UAL. See e.g. http://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/n...html?ana=yahoo And note that DL will start flying international widebodies SFO-JFK. That will certainly up the competition yet further...

SF_Flyer

This will likely cause me to move more travel to other airlines. T7 was great if you were running late given its size and great rcc and GS staff. Newark has been painful whenever I have flown to/through there.

On the connecting to Europe angle, why would anyone in SF or LA connect through ewr? Fly direct to Europe and connect there. Particularly on the way home so you are going through customs at your final destination and not mid trip, and generally have 1 long flight to sleep, etc then a short hop vs. two mid length flights.

As someone who has taken the SFO-JFK flight 20+ times per year in paid business, I am likely someone they would have preferred to keep as a passenger.

AA and DL will come out ahead on this one.

kettle1

I am not going to get into the history of CO or UA. Google it.

Both carriers were fine back in the 1970's and 1980's - in fact Great carriers. CO was a fine carrier when based at LAX when run by Robert F. Six. Frank Lorenzo changed everything when he took over CO.

The fact that the 2nd largest carrier in the World (UA currently) will have ZERO flts from JFK to any hub is a complete joke. How can UA not make money flying from JFK in 2015?

How about Chicago, Houston, Denver and SFO. If UA can not make money from JFK to these cities - HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

I am not flying to EWR in the beautiful "Garden State".

EWR became a hub because of the People Express merger.

Google the early days of both UA and CO. Both carriers had a great history.

Shame it has come down to this.