The strangest part of reading this thread is seeing how many posters seem to be personally offended at the very idea of a person viewing EWR as a perfectly legitimate option for the New York area. If you don't see it that way, if you're convinced that JFK is the true gateway into the city, there are plenty of flights for you to take.

I live in Jersey City. I like EWR. As a result, I use it exclusively. When I lived in New York, I never used EWR, because it was inconvenient.

This isn't an issue of prestige. A vast majority of people don't care which airport is the real "gateway" into New York. They choose the airport that has the the best fares and gets them to where they need to be the fastest. The rhetoric here is just a little intense.

Wait, really?

No. UA's business model discounts your emotions. But they're real, so they matter. (I grew up visiting JFK for special occasions as well; I still crane to see what airplanes are on the stands at JFK; EWR by contrast is a utility airport of no interest.) As has been said upthread, JFK carries a whole different set of "brand perceptions" compared to EWR, the way a Cadillac carries different brand perceptions compared to a Chevy although they are both made of the same stuff.

Sure, UA is capitulating to superior competition at JFK, but it's also operating in the belief that customers will see EWR and JFK as equal. They won't; people have strong emotions / beliefs about the two, and just because they're not entirely rational doesn't mean they won't drive booking decisions.

The airline business runs on emotion.

For some this is true. For a significant number I think this is not.

Oh, let's not take this thread off course again. But I got to say that I think to most consumers, the difference between a Cadillac and a Chevy really isn't all that great. So to it is with most airlines.

It is not capitulating. It is moving to where it has an asset it can best utilize. JFK and EWR don't need to be equal. New York isn't the beginning and end for all flights (or the world for that matter). UA is beefing up its international network, while expecting some O/D to transfer to EWR.

And no business runs on emotion. That's just silly to say otherwise.

All this talk about EWR and JFK, trains, time, etc. is crazy. From SFO, my premium flight options to smaller UA Europe markets just got a whole lot BETTER! I'm glad someone seconded my earlier suggestion that this upgrade c/would soon come to IAD. If this happens (more than the 1x 777 now), we'll see a lot more options to Europe. Let's face it, UA has a much better network direct to smaller cities in Europe than do any of the other legacy US carriers. They already fly to far more places in Asia than the other legacies.

Crazy to talk about running from competition (as if JFK airport was al that mattered)! This is opening up a ton of destinations from the west coast to Europe. That's not running (with the hyperbolic tail between legs).

If that were at all true, no business would spend a single dollar on brand marketing. The list of businesses that run entirely on emotion, from alcoholic beverages to high fashion to life insurance, is as long as your arm. And if emotion were not a major factor in commercial air travel FlyerTalk would not exist.

You may have more choices but not better choices. Spend a few minutes with Great Circle Mapper and you'll see that a lot of secondary cities in Europe are better served SFO-FRA-XXX than SFO-EWR-XXX in terms of flown distance.

Agreed. And DL in SLC. And DL in MSP.

The people saying that UA is running from competition is comical. And just something else for people to whine about with UA. Airlines do this, and have done this for years. If there is a saturation of seats in a market, no one will operate as efficiently as they would like. Thats business sense.

This thread is really just about preferrence over which NYC airport is better in someones opinion. And then there is the usual trolling about who ducks out of the DL or AA forum to come tell UA flyers that its better over there.

And as a west coaster who has stepped foot in JFK twice in my life, I am VERY happy for this change. I never really had access to PS flights before, and now when going to smaller cities in Europe, a new option of a nicer 752 is available over a 738/739 to EWR. My business in NYC usually had me flying in to EWR anyway. My northeast cxns are usually through EWR. JFK was a non-factor for me.

That being said, I am sad for those UA employees at JFK. I had always heard good things about them.

They're reducing consumer choice, cutting capacity, likely going to harm their revenue premiums, and avoiding competition. Sounds like capitulation to me. :-:

I think you're confusing marketing with running a business.

This is why I'm still here. I fly to a small(er) EU airport (ARN) 8-12 times a year and UA is the only way I can get there in 1 day from SFO (SFO-EWR-ARN) but UA (wisely) is going seasonal on this route so I'll need to fly Saturday (via FRA) or Saturday night (via LHR) during the winter.

When it comes to flying to Asia, it really isn't close for me out of SFO.

Here's the issue/benefit (depending on how you look at it) of SFO-EWR-EU vs. SFO-FRA-EU...

I like flying through EWR for small EU cities because I can take the 6:00 am or 6:55 am SFO-EWR flight Sunday morning and get to my small EU city first thing Monday morning. I see this as a benefit, some don't like this.

When flying through FRA/LHR I have to leave Saturday or Saturday night from SFO and it gets me in Sunday night. I don't see this as a benefit because I kill 2 days (IMO) instead of only Sunday.

"Reducing choice & Cutting capacity"
These usually raise prices, so it's hard to see how that will harm revenue premiums. Wait, are you only seeing this change from the view of NYC? Again, it's not all O/D New York!!

Lots of businesses move from competition. It's not capitulation! It's business!!

Ah - I believe you're thinking that the majority of premium class passengers flying internationally into or out of the New York area are local, when in fact most are non-US passengers like myself. I've never had to take a connecting flight into JFK because, well, JFK has much broader set of international linkages than EWR.

And you may be discounting the impact marketing and brand perceptions have on business results.

That's not the topic being discussed.

Businesses don't make decisions based on emotions. They use facts and data. Businesses use emotion to sell their products and services to consumers.