Don't Fly Ted

[Just Plane Crazy]

With the exception of AA and UA (who were late to the game or have not offered unlimited upgrades to elites), the other majors offer unlimited upgrades to elites for the simple reason that their coach product sucks.

E+ and MRTC have all the other majors beat, hands down, from a coach product perspective. It's not the end of the world to miss an upgrade on either carrier. It's a nightmare on the remainder of the majors.

Further, E+ and MRTC are even more effective on international routes.

I will disagree with you on this point. Economy is economy, no matter how much you try to make it sound good. The people that travel for business or on a constant base will agree on that. Sitting for over 3 hours in Economy or in First will make a difference. Specially if you have to get out of the aircraft and be relaxed and ready to go into a meeting etc. Even more important on Red-Eye flights. The few extra inches in seat width, pitch etc. makes a difference. The ability to hook a computer into the seat power to be able to work and as important not having to get up for only one and not two passengers when they need to get out of their seats, that is important to quiet a few customers. On short 1 – 2 hour flights no business traveler will argue about Economy service only. When it comes to +3 hour flights (look at all the coast to coast flights) it makes a difference.

 

[ClueByFour]

When United's RASM begins to exceed the RASMs of DL, CO, NW, or even FL, I might begin to believe that its Y product is indeed superior.

Red-herring. RASM is impacted by many things, only one of which is quality of one cabin of service.

Being of "great utility to the airline" implies many things. If you meant RASM the first time, you should have said "RASM."

 

[ClueByFour]

I will disagree with you on this point. Economy is economy, no matter how much you try to make it sound good. The people that travel for business or on a constant base will agree on that. Sitting for over 3 hours in Economy or in First will make a difference. Specially if you have to get out of the aircraft and be relaxed and ready to go into a meeting etc. Even more important on Red-Eye flights. The few extra inches in seat width, pitch etc. makes a difference. The ability to hook a computer into the seat power to be able to work and as important not having to get up for only one and not two passengers when they need to get out of their seats, that is important to quiet a few customers. On short 1 – 2 hour flights no business traveler will argue about Economy service only. When it comes to +3 hour flights (look at all the coast to coast flights) it makes a difference.

On AA, you can get a few extra inches of legroom and the power in the seat, even if you don't get the upgrade.

On UA, you can get a few extra inches of legroom and the power in the seat, if you don't get the upgrade.

On everyone else, you are screwed on the seat room and in many cases screwed on the power if you don't get the upgrade.

I never said that any enhanced economy is better than having a first class seat. So long as the potential reduction in F seating is done on shorter and midhaul routes and/or those which are primarily leisure traffic, it's not going to be that big of a loss to UA.

The medium revenue flyer is the one who you want to try to entice in today's day and age. Someone paying full-Y or full-F is going to fly whomever is most convienient. Somebody taking a once a year trip to see the mouse is going to fly whoever is cheapest.

Somebody flying 12-25 trips/year is the one you want to get after. This person will probably not qualify for top teir (or, in some cases, second teir) status on any airline, and will thus miss upgrades on a fairly regular basis on many of the domestic majors. Things like MRTC and E+ make a huge difference in their purchasing decisions.

If you need a solid example of this, look no further than BA. An airline who is set to make record profits, and one who offers very few "upgrade" methods to it's premium cabins (because people actually pay for them) still decided that they could drive additional revenue with World Traveller Plus.

 

[Just Plane Crazy]

On AA, you can get a few extra inches of legroom and the power in the seat, even if you don't get the upgrade.

On UA, you can get a few extra inches of legroom and the power in the seat, if you don't get the upgrade.

I don't know about AA but I know that UA has Seat Power only in F or C. Not in E+ nor any other Economy class.