UA eliminating PHL-IAD flights. UPDATE - Flights Being Restored as of OCT 2019
Nov 12, 2018, 8:38 pm
#1
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UA eliminating PHL-IAD flights. UPDATE - Flights now being removed as of March 4
Update again, Now all flights being removed as of March 4 2022
Last edited by ednort; Jan 12, 2022 at 2:23 pm Reason: Fights being removed as of March 4 2022
Nov 12, 2018, 8:43 pm
#2
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Nov 12, 2018, 9:27 pm
#4
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Really? I take those flights fairly often.. sometimes with killer fares from LAX. I normally do LAX IAD PHL and get to use the Turkish Airlines club at IAD and the American Express lounge at PHL.. there goes that fun
Nov 12, 2018, 9:36 pm
#6
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It closes off a lot of UA connection options, especially for UA TATL flights as well as those operated by partners who don't operate from PHL.
Nov 13, 2018, 12:30 am
#7
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From past several months, they had IAD-PHL fare priced at $384 which was extraordinarily expensive and planes were flying at much lower capacity. My skeptic mind sees this as some kind of secret handshake with AA where AA gave up a route letting United build monopoly and United gave up IAD-PHL to let AA have that monopoly. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but United had no reason to price that fare so high several months in advance. Unless, they wanted to show there wasn't enough capacity to justify flying that route!!
Nov 13, 2018, 1:55 am
#8
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From past several months, they had IAD-PHL fare priced at $384 which was extraordinarily expensive and planes were flying at much lower capacity. My skeptic mind sees this as some kind of secret handshake with AA where AA gave up a route letting United build monopoly and United gave up IAD-PHL to let AA have that monopoly. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but United had no reason to price that fare so high several months in advance. Unless, they wanted to show there wasn't enough capacity to justify flying that route!!
I used to fly US Airways often from BWI to connect in PHL (some 90 miles), and saw the same pattern; can't imagine that many people were O&D in BWI and PHL.
Nov 13, 2018, 3:44 am
#9
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YAHOO!! Christmas comes early! I used to flug PHL - IAD - XXX and return monthly and one of the few things that I could count on was [Moderator edit] airframes and delays and missed connections. Not to mention usually higher costs. Thanks UA, For helping me to discover the Choo - Choo to EWR. Better costs and lounges.
Last edited by Ocn Vw 1K; Nov 13, 2018 at 8:24 am Reason: Per FT Rules against vulgarities even if disguised.
Nov 13, 2018, 5:51 am
#10
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Those are the same reasons PHL-EWR service went away a few years ago.
Last edited by Ocn Vw 1K; Nov 13, 2018 at 8:25 am Reason: Conforming moderator edit to original quote.
Nov 13, 2018, 6:45 am
#11
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Sad to see this go. For a long time, that was the best way to get a later flight to DEN from PHL. The DEN-PHL-DEN schedules have been variable over the years and often no very business friendly.
Nov 13, 2018, 6:50 am
#12
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From past several months, they had IAD-PHL fare priced at $384 which was extraordinarily expensive and planes were flying at much lower capacity. My skeptic mind sees this as some kind of secret handshake with AA where AA gave up a route letting United build monopoly and United gave up IAD-PHL to let AA have that monopoly. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but United had no reason to price that fare so high several months in advance. Unless, they wanted to show there wasn't enough capacity to justify flying that route!!
There is almost zero O&D traffic for the WAS-PHL market. They're only about 120 miles apart and have frequent train service. This is especially true for PHL-IAD; people who live / work in or near DC aren't going to schlep all the way out to IAD just to get on 20 minute flight to PHL -- blocked at an hour due to taxiing on both ends, and still likely late because 120-mile United Express flights are among the first to get delayed.
The very small number of PHL-WAS travelers were likely flying AA to DCA anyway. This isn't some big lucrative market for either AA or UA.
Almost everyone who would have flown PHL-IAD was connecting -- and connecting fares have absolutely nothing to do with the fares on the individual legs. UA has decided that it would rather route PHL travelers through western hubs, or via the train to Newark. Now, this will definitely cost them some business -- it's hard for me to imagine remaining a UA loyalist if you need to fly from Philly to Florida or Philly to Europe, for example -- but it's not the business you've identified and it's not some grand conspiracy.
Nov 13, 2018, 7:40 am
#13
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Certainly not now as you'd have to make a 2:35 PM flight from PHL to IAD to connect to DEN. The N/S flight is an hour or so later than that one.
Nov 13, 2018, 9:43 am
#14
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Similar pattern with adding COS-DEN to a trip. It’s a very short flight and actually a reasonable drive, but UA is all over the map on what it adds now, sometimes nothing, sometimes adding $500 to the ticket cost.
Based on some comments UA should walk away from secondary airports to nearby Hubs?
Based on some comments UA should walk away from secondary airports to nearby Hubs?