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One-on-one with United president Scott Kirby - McGinnis

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One-on-one with United president Scott Kirby - McGinnis

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Old Apr 2, 2019, 8:46 pm
  #46  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
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Originally Posted by docbert
The key word there is "buy up", so it's people that in some form or other start with BE. Thus it excludes most corporate travelers (where BE isnt even offered), probably anyone that turns of "Show BE fares" on the app, and most likely also those that select the Economy fare to start with on the website.

ie, people who select "BE" at first, but then realize by the time they check the bag they now can't carry-on it's going to cost basically the same - and with other disadvantages like no seat selection.
Agreed. I don’t touch BE with a barge pole when booking flights on .bomb. I sincerely hope that I’m not one of those counted as buy ups, and fully expect that I’m not.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 8:54 pm
  #47  
 
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Re JFK, Kirby’s regret seems focused on the TCons being dropped (that was all UA had there for years) and the loss of corporate contracts.

I don’t see any move specifically to connect to partners at JFK. The current setup of partners flying to/from JFK (esp the JVs such as LH, LX, NH) while UA flies the bulk from EWR works quite well. JFK serves the O&D market and UA gets its share of the revenue pot, while EWR serves both O&D and connections.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 9:10 pm
  #48  
 
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
Also, Newark is closer to NYC than the other NY area airports.
Newark is closer to (most parts of) Manhattan, not "closer to NYC". Obviously which airport you prefer for O&D has a lot to do with where you are going and whether you are taking a car or transit, which is going to be different for everyone. And which airport you prefer for connecting has to do with connecting partners, timetables, and easy of connecting between terminals.

If anything, I see UA dropping LGA and moving some of their domestic flights to JFK
United just built a brand new fancy UC in LGA (it's not yet open), which is a good signal they don't plan to pull out anytime soon. I think they see it as a strong O&D station.

The new LGA terminal is beautiful and spacious by the way can't wait for UA to move over fully.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 10:44 pm
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
If you're willing to pay a premium for a pair of seats alone, premium economy is right up your alley. It's less than $300 more roundtrip than economy on EWR-FRA for example. I doubt that's what UA intended long term, but that's how the market is currently shaping up. And you get a whole lot more legroom than you ever did in economy, plus 50% more PQMs.
$300 is a pretty good deal. However in most cases the price difference between Economy and Premium Economy is $1000 and up.
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 1:06 am
  #50  
 
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
If anything, I see UA dropping LGA and moving some of their domestic flights to JFK to support connections with the rest of the * network since I don't see those carriers moving to LGA or EWR given how stretched to the limits the latter's Terminal B is! UA's decision to have no presence in JFK is also hampering their JV partner AC since they can't dump flights into JFK to support international routings, no no no! Instead, they must sync up with UA's hubs to support onward connections on the network.

Safe Travels,

James
From my point of view this would SUCK the worst. JFK and EWR are both equally annoying to get to from where I live. I have committed to EWR and when I'm in a hurry/don't mind a connection I fly LGA to ORD. I have family in Chicago so I fly this route many times a year (when I just can't convince myself to pay $550 round trip from HPN). I like LGA-- I think UA had it right before with PS flights landing at JFK and connecting to on-ward EU flights. I could see maybe 4-6 round trips a day LAX/SFO-JFK that could be good for connectors.

But I really would hate losing LGA
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 1:19 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by Infinite1K
$300 is a pretty good deal. However in most cases the price difference between Economy and Premium Economy is $1000 and up.
I got a P+ deal from PDX to LHR for ultimately less than $300 more than economy (W fare). It requires going PDX-IAD-BRU-LHR on the outbound, though returning LHR-SFO-PDX on the return. Booked it Sunday afternoon and my GPUs to Polaris cleared at midnight EDT/9pm PDT the sane day. The cheapest round trip J fare was more than $8,000. I’m happy.

It looks to me as though those really cheap P fares of the last 2 years ($2,500) are going away and are being replaced by P+. Having flown the excellent P+ seat that’s fine by me.
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 1:38 am
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by jp12687
From my point of view this would SUCK the worst. JFK and EWR are both equally annoying to get to from where I live. I have committed to EWR and when I'm in a hurry/don't mind a connection I fly LGA to ORD. I have family in Chicago so I fly this route many times a year (when I just can't convince myself to pay $550 round trip from HPN). I like LGA-- I think UA had it right before with PS flights landing at JFK and connecting to on-ward EU flights. I could see maybe 4-6 round trips a day LAX/SFO-JFK that could be good for connectors.

But I really would hate losing LGA
LGA is incredibly popular and airlines make bank there, just like DCA. I don't think UA would bail on it.
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 5:31 am
  #53  
 
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Originally Posted by jp12687
From my point of view this would SUCK the worst. JFK and EWR are both equally annoying to get to from where I live. I have committed to EWR and when I'm in a hurry/don't mind a connection I fly LGA to ORD. I have family in Chicago so I fly this route many times a year (when I just can't convince myself to pay $550 round trip from HPN). I like LGA-- I think UA had it right before with PS flights landing at JFK and connecting to on-ward EU flights. I could see maybe 4-6 round trips a day LAX/SFO-JFK that could be good for connectors.

But I really would hate losing LGA
Don't worry about losing LGA as dilanesp points out. I don't think there were many SFO-JFK-XXX connections back in the PS days outside the avgeek crowd. Terminal change and not many additional destinations ex JFK on Star made those non starters for many. The Star flights out of JFK are to hubs - most are already nonstops from the west coast, save for small ones like Geneva, Brussels, or Lisbon. Probably more of those west coast nonstops today like VIE and TLV than 5 years ago.

If like EWR there were lots of destinations that don't have an SFO/LAX nonstop on Star then there'd be more of a connection case - like BCN, MAD, MAN, MXP, FCO, ATH, TXL, BOM.

The other thing going for LGA would be if they remove the distance limit on flights ('perimeter rule'). That would open up truly premium transcon out of LGA.

Last edited by cerealmarketer; Apr 3, 2019 at 5:38 am
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 10:03 am
  #54  
 
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Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
If you're willing to pay a premium for a pair of seats alone, premium economy is right up your alley. It's less than $300 more roundtrip than economy on EWR-FRA for example. I doubt that's what UA intended long term, but that's how the market is currently shaping up. And you get a whole lot more legroom than you ever did in economy, plus 50% more PQMs.

If United thought the PE premium on transatlantic was going to be $300, it would have never happened. NYC-FRA is a very competitive market. If you can find a flight to Europe with PE from IAD, ORD, IAH, DEN, SFO - the PE premium is in general far more.
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 10:19 am
  #55  
 
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Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
I only noticed it because I was returning a rental car to EWR, but they've already got the steel frame up for the new Terminal A (Terminal 'One'). Just took a flight from A today and they have the renderings up - looks outstanding and opens in a couple years.
The renderings look nice. Have you seen anything showing the expected completion date?

The real problem with EWR, and all of the NYC airports, is the lack of airspace. Many of the inbound ATC delays, and excessive taix-out delays, are due to airspace restrictions. Too many flights in too small of an area. Not sure how you fix that.

The most exclusive airport in the NY metro favored by people who value time the most by far is in NJ.
It's Teterboro.
Yet it's not immune from the airspace issues.

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Old Apr 3, 2019, 10:35 am
  #56  
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Originally Posted by Nicoolio
Air Berlin had lie flat seats, probably better than UA's.

At the same time IAG just launched a long-haul LCC, Level. Icelandair might be in that category. I guess Condor is similar for LH - and I do think they have lie-flat seats. And what about Air Europa?
I was surprised about the Air Berlin comment, too. Don’t think they were anything like WOW over the Atlantic.

Condor has angled (170 degree) business class seats. I have flown them a few times from the west coast because of business class fares were quite low when factoring in the mileage earnings with Alaska. They are currently not owned by Lufthansa (though there is talk of perhaps taking it over from current parent Thomas Cook - see https://skift.com/2019/03/14/lufthan...irline-condor/).
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 10:49 am
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by LarryJ
The real problem with EWR, and all of the NYC airports, is the lack of airspace. Many of the inbound ATC delays, and excessive taix-out delays, are due to airspace restrictions. Too many flights in too small of an area. Not sure how you fix that.
Bigger planes, fewer flights @:-)
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 11:03 am
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by threeoh
Bigger planes, fewer flights @:-)
So Airline A replaces multiple flights in smaller airplanes with a single flight in a larger airplane. What will prevent Airline B from coming in with additional flights to replace them?

This is why EWR used to be slot-controlled.
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 11:19 am
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by LarryJ
So Airline A replaces multiple flights in smaller airplanes with a single flight in a larger airplane. What will prevent Airline B from coming in with additional flights to replace them?
Regulation.

This is why EWR used to be slot-controlled.
Ding ding ding. I'd rather have 7 on-time ORD-EWR flights than 9 delayed ORD-EWR flights, assuming number of seats stays the same.
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Old Apr 3, 2019, 11:26 am
  #60  
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Originally Posted by threeoh
Regulation.
Slot controls are an imperfect solution at best. EWR-LHR is a perfect example. LHR is strictly slot controlled. What that means as a practical matter is that carriers protect their slots at all costs. So during periods of light demand, UA will fly five relatively low capacity aircraft (752s or 763s) EWR-LHR, rather than two or three larger aircraft (772 or 77W), in order to ensure they keep the slots.
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