BBSHOPSINGER

The issue will be with business travel. Businesses may force the "budget" fare despite your point above. In fact, they probably would. This would do a good job of discouraging business travelers from flying United.

televisor

Do business travelers avoid Delta because of their E fares?

rowenb

Potentially. The issue becomes how the corporate travel agency websites that many business travelers are forced to use get configured: do they force travelers to select an E fare if one is available, or do the E fares get screened out?

There's been some recent discussion of this on a thread I started in the Delta forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...c-economy.html

Seby12

I don't think TED is getting relaunched.

Often1

DL has basic economy and AA will likely have something similar.

That's not going to leave people many places to jump.

Corporate TA's do what they are told by the employer. As people reported here about DL, employers fairly quickly carved out E fares other than a few fools and those are paying the price.

If your employer makes a poor business decision and you can't live with it, call your headhunter, because these fares are here to stay.

dhelman

I really hope this does not come to international flights. I have a small company, so I don't have a fat corporate travel budget to buy my tickets, always get the cheap flights that just let me squeak by as Gold or occasionally Plat. If not for my China residence, the PQD would be a big problem for me. Seat selection (and to a lesser degree E+) is a big deal to me. I need an aisle seat on 12+ hour flights to maintain my prostate health without being a nuisance to seat mates.

If they start to trim down/eliminate award miles, that would be annoying. If they trim down/eliminate PQD I'd never make it past Silver, and I guess I'd have no reason to be loyal to any airlines, just take whichever is cheapest. As of now, I'll occasionally pay a couple hundred dollars more for UA or *A.

One last thought - do you think it might not county as valid UA segment to meet the four UA metal segments to make status?

gglave

Exactly - This is what will happen with me.

I know I can go find another job, but it's tough to get the nitty-gritty of a travel policy during an interview process, and most everywhere I would go would havea similar 'lowest fare' policy. It's where the world is going.

lhrsfo

I'm in a similar position but ex LHR. UA was the obvious winner for me, but it's not the obvious airline to fly (indeed, almost everyone looks at me as if I'm mad flying UA over BA or VS). So, I guess if UA eliminates the reasons for flying it, I'll simply stop. But I dare say they won't care until the next downturn comes, by which time I will probably have got used to some other airline and learnt its ways.

uanj

LHR-ORD going all budget economy? No way! This was one route that gave UA pause when considering to drop international F.

This move is only the introduction of a new, lower fare basis. You can continue to buy tickets just as you do now with no change in benefits. It is your choice, especially as it sounds like you decide your travel.

ftweb

I'm hoping this actually helps with seat selection. I'm often in a situation where, even two weeks out, I cannot get an E+ aisle seat on the flights that I want. (SFO-BOS was a particularly egregious example earlier this year, though it seems to have gotten less busy now.) It would be great if United essentially offered budget leisure travelers $50/ticket to defer seat selection until after travelers like us who care more about our seats.

gglave

Again, this is exactly what people said when Air Canada introduced Tango-class fares - The fare class that drove me from AC to United.

First it was "leisure routes only."

Then surprise, surprise, Tango appeared on routes like YVR - YYZ.

"Sure, but never TATL!" the FT community screamed. Guess what came next?

TPAC followed and now virtually every routing has a Tango-class fare.

I have to imagine United watched with interest...

emcampbe

I don't think that it won't come to those routes, but it's only one of several fare options. Guess what - if you want your seat selection, full host of elite benefits, etc. then you can buy the cheapest fare that includes these options, which ain't gonna be, say, a B fare.

Also, while the comparison with Tango is fair to an extent, but assuming UAs fares act the same as Delta's, there are some differences, the huge one being with regards to changes. Tango does allow you to make changes for a fee like most other airline tickets today - but if changes aren't allowed, then that's for a completely different market.

Any business that does a semi-decent amount of travel, including even a handful of changes a year, will quickly see any benefit of basic fare savings wiped out, with higher expenses for these tickets since they need to be completely rebooked. So a $150 savings (complete made up example, I have no idea if that is what the differential will be) on a $1000 TATL ticket, will be wiped out when instead of adding a $300 change fee because a meeting moved a couple of days, that $850 is gone and replaced with a now $1200 ticket. So now the cost is $1200+850=$2050 vs. $1000+$300=$1300.

chavala

THIS is the way Im thinking. It will suck for those whose businesses force them to buy this budget class, but good for the rest of us.

gglave

I understand. What people like me are complaining about is that our employers will require us to book those fares.

...and yes, yes, we should all go find new jobs that don't require these fares, but it's a hassle, and when we do six weeks later our 'new' employer will require us to book these fares as well.

The ironic part is it will cost United business - Once these fare classes are in place, I'll just book whatever's most convenient. There will no longer be any incentive for me to contort myself to be loyal to United.


I'm at about 55-60 segments so far this year on United and I've had to make one change. One. Even if that ticket went in the garbage it would still be a cost savings overall.

Most of my colleagues are in the same situation. Our trips are known, and rarely change.

WineCountryUA

With the UA formal announcement, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...c-economy.html , will close this thread and let the discussion continue in the new thread.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator