I've found fares high and if you want an upgradable fare (using a systemwide) you're talking $2000+, plus very little upgrade availablity.

I haven't figured out what the deal is either...

I appreciate your answer, but it is a bit circular, amounting as it does to "if it would net UA more, UA would be doing it." I don't know how long ago it was now that fuel prices really took off, but it seems to me that the fares to EZE jumped up before fuel prices did. And fuel prices shouldn't account for very disparate cpms should they? (Because IAD-EZE RT is very close to 10K miles if I'm not mistaken, it is easy to see at a glance what the cpm works out to.)

UA has very limited capacity. X number of people must or want to fly UA (corp contract, miles, etc.) UA doesn't care if they lose out on Y number of of pax going to OA at an average fare of Z, because UA is selling its seats at an average fare of Z+who knows what.

The end

Interestingly I found the online UA fare from HKG to EZE is only around US$2500 (including tax & charges) and believe that it is a H fare with stopovers allowed. It seems really cheap compared to the ex-US fares.

It is quite suitable for me since it is a side trip to my US business trip but the down side is the expectedly low seats availability when I fix up my itn in December for late January/early February travel.

Just keep my fingers crossed

I am going to go ahead and state the obvious - but I did try December/January last year and found that seats books up early and often with people heading down for the sunny holidays to visit friends and family.

I think you also can't overlook the merits of EZE as a destination for business travel relative to the many other cities that UA flies to long haul. Far fewer business travelers are headed to EZE than GRU or MEX for example, not to mention LHR, HKG, FRA, etc etc. The business climate in EZE is simply much more complicated and that has frightened off many who would invest or conduct business there. (I say this as someone in charge of sales for a company that DOES do business in EZE -- just being realistic in stating that it's not everyone's cup of tea.) Still, EZE's popularity as a tourism destination has grown tremendously since the 2002 devaluation, naturally giving you more Y fares and mileage redemptions.

If the FT consensus is that C and F fares bought by business travelers play a significant part in making a route profitable (along with cargo and other considerations), it would follow that UA is likely not selling as many C and F fares to EZE as they are to other destinations which see more service.

In my case, I could push my company to pay for C when I go to EZE, but I don't since I would exhaust my yearly travel budget after 2-3 trips. I also don't push for it since as a 1K or 1P every year, I'm virtually guaranteed an exit row or E+ seating. Then there are some flights like the one I took two weeks ago EZE-IAD, when I get op up'd -- which should tell you that Y is oversold, but C had availability.

These are all likely reasons why UA in particular needs to keep Y fares high on this route. I don't think there are outside regulatory factors or cartel-like behavior involved. Especially since I remember the good old days in 2002-03 when I grabbed some E-Savers IAD-EZE for $450 round trip - all in!

You also can't forget the loyal Argentines and Uruguayans who built up miles in the MP program back when UA had more service to EZE and MVD. They still compete with gringos for what few free seats UA opens up.

Well stated.

My general comment to others on this thread is that it's incorrect to assume the lowest coach fare in the market is indicative of the average fare in the market, and it's the average fare (on the marginal demand) which is going to drive a decision to offer additional seasonal service.