iflyuaaa

well, if all you care about is getting on a flight, then you're essentially saying service doesn't matter and then you are correct, UA is better than AA. but you should really try spirit. the will get you from point A to point B cheaper than any of the other airlines and if that's your preference, you're probably better off there. and you're the exact passenger UA is trying to target by cutting to the bone. jeff has made a bet that soft product and service don't matter...some will say his bet paid off and others will disagree.

For those who do care about service, then an AA experience is better at least at the EXP level. with 90+% upgrades, the free meal is rarely used. But on UA, with a 15% upgrade rate as a 1k, that's probably 75 segments/yr where one could get $15 of value - some will like that and others will be indifferent.

well if that's the case, then probably neither airline really cares about them. $3000/yr spend and a few flights isn't much and is easily replaceable revenue - at least that's jeff's bet.

Tchiowa

I just flew 837 SFO/NRT on Wednesday. My answer to the OP, if UA keeps treating me this way they have me as a customer forever.

transportbiz

Why? What did they do for you that was so great?

spin88

Well I just spent some considerable time booking flights to/from Japan for my and another family who are going with us. Total spending (each of us has another destination tacked on) was slightly over $15,000. None of our spending went to UA and only one leg of their trip (NRT-HNL) went to UA, and that was because it was $1600 cheaper to accept UA vs other on that one leg on the "game changing" 7-narrow-7. The "all UA option" would have been $2000 cheaper for me, $1000 cheaper for them, neither of us bit. We both travel enough to know its just not worth it.

And we were both basically flexible as to when we went. Over an entire stretch of time, with many searches, UA was always (other than a few odd midnight connections on OZ or KA) always the cheapest. And UA had lots of empty seats, even with cheap-o prices. The only airline even vaguely in their camp price wise were our friends from AC (evidently people in asia know all about the HD 77W ).

So you may love what UA offers, but the market has spoken, you are one of the few that does. United has not only lost the price premium it used to command, it now has to dramatically undercut the competition to sell seats on competitive routes.

Boraxo

Zero. This is pretty common on popular routes at popular times i.e. IAH-SFO evening flight. F and E+ were sold out, I was 39/47 on upgrade list (trying to figure out who could have been behind me!) As a 1K previously I might have been in the 10-20 range.

As for the EXP perks, yes, it would have been nice to get a free snack and drink (when I used to be 1K). But the E+ means a lot more...

Tchiowa

Good seats. Good service. Courteous and friendly. Great club. Zero problems.

You're entitled to your opinion, but if the market is speaking, the market filled a 747. No seats available in First. No seats available in Business. And according to the Standby list, they filled the plane completely.

And prices on that route aren't cheap.

Always Flyin

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I guess you missed the part where it was described how UA was far cheaper than the competition, and not just on that single day?

Filling a plane with Kayakers is not a long term, viable business strategy.

channa

Advance GPUs don't show on the standby list anymore.

I think only if you get the upgrade at the gate does it show.

spin88

If you flew BF on UA, and were in the UD, then I agree, great seat. ^ If you were in Y, then you have a distinctly minority view, seat is 17" wide, E+ is only 34" and there is no AVOD, and IME the power/streaming is iffy at best. Food, well its just bad. Reliably is also bad.

You like the clubs? SFO UC is just sad. The NRT US is physically nice, if tired, needs a makeover badly (the showers are nice though) but the food/drink selection is sad. We just go to the ANA lounge. Sorry, but I have to seriously doubt anyone who calls the UC "great" has flown anything other than sprint to compare UA to.

JAL and ANA also fly this route (JAL to HND), both are much better in Y and J.

Pricing? If you look just at SFO-NRT, UA overcharges for it, since they have a code share with ANA they just match price. ANA and UA are usually the same price, UA is certainly never higher, sometimes ANA is. Since DL left the market its basically a semi-monopoly. But, UA is getting less and less of that traffic at that higher price, and they are filling the plane with more and more discounted fares, with low yield, on that leg.

How this works is the moment its part of a larger itinerary, going via NRT is the option that pops up as cheap, more so than changing in ICN/China, and more so than OALs. Now the JV is probably part of this, but when its the same ANA flights tacked on the end, taking UA to NRT vs. ANA, UA is almost always $100-200 less. United is filling this bird with cheap connecting traffic as it loses the higher end and O/D traffic. This pattern shows system wide, its why yields have underperformed.

And LAX-NRT? Even more so. If I want a cheap-o fare, back connecting in LA on UA is the way to go. United must just be getting killed on that route given how low they are selling it.

iflyuaaa

i agree this is what jeffy is doing. i'm not sure i agree it's not a long term viable strategy. he might be right. if he can get his costs lower by removing blankets and pillows and serving terrible food and cutting every corner, then they don't need a revenue premium to survive.

look at spirit, allegiant, and southwest from the 90s. (i'd argue today that soutwest offers much higher service than ua so can't count soutwest of today in my statement)

WineCountryUA

Have archived posts on those no longer using UA/UA MP as their primary carrier from 2015 into this thread. The active thread is still http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...eaving-ua.html.
Placed a link in the active thread's wiki back to this thread for future reference.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator