Ua Codeshare On Usairways Metal

[tinpadro]

Sorry to inform you guys. We in UA Rez were sent a memo late Tuesday that states to better support our codeshare partner USAir. We will be pulling all of our Discounted fare classes below H class like the Q,V,W,T,S. The normal cheap seats that most peeps ask for if they are on true United metal. I dont think this approach will help USAir if the passenger wants a cheap seat and all the USAir listings come up higher than UA flights. Now the memo does say that any USAir codeshare flight thats nonstop will still have the cheap seats. Of course those are few and far between that I have noticed.

Just to inform the group and hopefully you guys can get a better shake over there.


We are all in this mess together.

 

[Flying Titan]

I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for U. I do know that quite often I've seen seats on US metal listed for lower fares as UA tix than as US tix. Perhaps someone with more insight than I have can offer an opinion on this. Is this good for U? Is this good for the pax who look to fly U first? Will this make it harder to attract new passengers?

 

[ClueByFour]

Is this good for U? Is this good for the pax who look to fly U first? Will this make it harder to attract new passengers?

No, no, and yes, in that order.

I spent about $3-4k of my own money (personal travel) on United tickets flown on U metal last year, normally when UA and AA were pricing out the same and U was higher--but I knew that the UA flights were really U flights. On many of these routes, the true "cheap seats" on U were not nearly as cheap as the "cheap seats" UA was selling (that were actually flown on U metal).

Now none of that revenue goes to U.

This does strike me as odd--I would have thought that U and UA had some kind of formula for charging each other in such a fashion that the carrier actually operating the flight would make just enough to cover costs, and the carrier selling the ticket was free to charge whatever they could get. Either that is not the case, or United has decided to stop selling tickets operated by U that they (UA) are not making enough money on, and simply using the line about helping U as an excuse.

Brilliant. This also smacks of collusion and a possible antitrust violation, as carriers are not supposed to be in cahoots on pricing.

 

[N628AU]

Clue,

Whomever operates the flight gets paid, regardless of who sells the ticket. If you fly from BOS-PDX via ORD on UAL, they get your money even if you bought the ticket from US as a US flight number.

Likewise, if you fly STL-SRQ via CLT all on US, US gets the revenue even if you bought from UAL.

 

[Freighterguynow]

I can confirm this. As a former USAirways type living in PHL - I now commercial travel extensively with my new employer. Coming into the US from South Korea on United, I could've had a great connection to USAirways (codesharing) out of Seattle. Instead, I had to wait over 4 hours in San Francisco because the fare was lower to stay UAL the whole trip.

Sorry folks but 80,000 frequent flier miles in 2003 all in and out of PHL. 0 (zero) on US Airways. Way to go Dave!!!

 

[RowUnderDCA]

But doesn't this really boil down to what U can get for selling its own seats?

If U can get more by selling the seats themselves, why would they want to let UAL sell them at a discount? Is the answer, 'because selling at a discount is better for the folks that post on this board?'

Considering the load factors, why would U be looking to sell more seats through a low yield distributor?

I understand that some feel as though U should flood the market with addtional capacity and lower fares and somehow not alter its cost inputs. That's a way to go, but is it the best way to go? And even if that is the ultimate plan to grow into an LCC type operation (with significant differences), how do you transition to that?

 

[ClueByFour]

But doesn't this really boil down to what U can get for selling its own seats?

Perhaps. The crux of the problem is that I've bought tix on UA for a U-metal flight where the UA fare offered was half (400 versus 800 dollars). If UA is not selling the U flights for 400, I buy the fare from AA or DL, who also have the $400 fare.

This is the typical situation in which I've bought these kinds of tickets--U's "native" fare is neither competitive, nor can I justify the difference just to ride U.