Saturday, June 21, 2008
United - Making Travel More Difficult.
Yesterday, United dropped a bomb and brought back fare restrictions that most airlines got rid of decades ago for domestic travel, the minimum stay. It used to be, and for international travel still is, that the cheapest round trip ticket would require a minimum stay of a day or two or sometimes a whole weekend. However, in the fight for domestic business travel, most airlines removed these restrictions a long time ago.
United appears to be among the first to bring them back, in the hope of domestic business travel becoming more profitable for the airline. Will it work? Good question. Given the climate of record high fuel prices, it's an understandable risk as every airline seems to be racing to be the first to bring back fee x or fee y. The problem is that there are other airlines, like JetBlue and Southwest which don't seem too eager to reintroduce all the fees. If this kind of rule isn't matched by more airlines that cater to business travelers, I think we'll either see United drop the rule before it gets implemented or many businesses shift to other airlines in a relatively short time.
It should be noticed that United raised pricing, again on its lowest price tickets - an increase of between 1 and 90 dollars each way as well.
United appears to be among the first to bring them back, in the hope of domestic business travel becoming more profitable for the airline. Will it work? Good question. Given the climate of record high fuel prices, it's an understandable risk as every airline seems to be racing to be the first to bring back fee x or fee y. The problem is that there are other airlines, like JetBlue and Southwest which don't seem too eager to reintroduce all the fees. If this kind of rule isn't matched by more airlines that cater to business travelers, I think we'll either see United drop the rule before it gets implemented or many businesses shift to other airlines in a relatively short time.
It should be noticed that United raised pricing, again on its lowest price tickets - an increase of between 1 and 90 dollars each way as well.
Roger, 9:17 AM
