GolfHos

NEW YORK - United Airlines said Friday it will start requiring minimum stays for nearly all domestic coach seats beginning in October. It is also raising its cheapest fares by as much as $90 one-way.

The second-largest U.S. carrier said the moves are among a number of changes, including flight and job cutbacks, it is making to combat record high fuel prices.

The Chicago-based airline has been among the industry's most aggressive in pushing fares and fees higher in recent months, and those efforts have often been matched by other carriers. The industry is scrambling to raise revenue in a fight to forestall what is projected to be a record multibillion industrywide loss this year.

Starting Oct. 6, most of United's economy-class fares will require a one- to three-night or weekend-night minimum stay, spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said. The policy does not apply to fliers in other classes.

The new rules are bound to be unpopular with business travelers who prefer to catch a flight out early in the morning so they can be back home in time for dinner.

"They'll push back big time," said Mike Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant. "It's one thing to simply raise fares. It's quite another to do it by imposing restrictions that appear to make it harder to conveniently fly."

Major carriers scrapped most minimum-stay rules — put in place largely to discourage big-budget corporate travelers from snatching up the cheapest seats — at the start of the decade, although United and other airlines recently started bringing the overnight rules back piecemeal.

Friday's changes are far more sweeping because they also apply to highly competitive routes where United goes head-to-head against lower-cost rivals such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.

"What we did this week was almost across the board," Urbanski said. "At the end of the day, it's all about improving our profit as we combat these record high fuel prices."

Major carriers scrapped most minimum-stay rules — put in place largely to discourage big-budget corporate travelers from snatching up the cheapest seats — at the start of the decade, although United and other airlines recently started bringing the overnight rules back piecemeal.

The answer is right here:


The carriers probably make most of their money off business travellers.

My guess would be that there are high traffic days and low traffic days.  By requiring (multi-)overnight stays they feed the light days.  They have to run the routes pretty much every day to have planes in the right place for the following morning.

In argument with my argument is the fact that I haven't been on a domestic flight that's anything less than oversold in three years.

So WTF do I know?

Rant on.

Half my friends are airline pilots.  I'll gather an opinion or two and report back.  Not that they'll necessarily know, drunk bastards the lot.

Half my friends are airline pilots.  I'll gather an opinion or two and report back.  Not that they'll necessarily know, drunk bastards the lot.

I hope none of them work SWA.

I could fly a plane.

Pappy.Boyington.surrenders

(http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/black-sheep-rc2.jpg)

I think you're looking at it wrong.  United isn't scrapping all fares save those with the minimum-stay requirement.  If staying 2 nights isn't in your cards, there's a higher fare you can buy from United that will suit your preferences.  I suspect they're banking on the majority of folks buying that higher-cost fare instead of extending the trip.

Because they hate bankruptcy more?

I think you're looking at it wrong.  United isn't scrapping all fares save those with the minimum-stay requirement.  If staying 2 nights isn't in your cards, there's a higher fare you can buy from United that will suit your preferences.  I suspect they're banking on the majority of folks buying that higher-cost fare instead of extending the trip.

I guess my point was to just raise fares then and don't play games with minimum stays (and paying for checked luggage).

But at least they can still advertise a $400 fare that really is $800 once you dig into it.

They need to advertise the $400 fares to fill the empty seats when they need to, but they don't want the people who can afford to pay $800 (i.e. business customers) to take up all the $400 fares, leaving the leisure traveler to choose between paying 800 bones and staying home. Leisure travelers theoretically should have more flexibility in scheduling their travel.

You missed my point, it's not $400. It's $400 plus fees and taxes plus $ for checked luggage plus $ for 'oh, you want to come home tomorrow instead of Thursday' equals $800.

There are no such thing as "business fares" and "leisure fares". Just fares. When I traveled a lot for business anybody could buy the ticket at the price given by the airline. They didn't ask if it was for business or leisure. And we booked through travel agents and by ourselves.

And business travelers have always paid the freight for the airlines. They usually do not have the luxury of booking weeks and months ahead like vacationers. This typically means they were paying higher prices anyway.

I would almost guarantee airlines would trade repeat business travelers for once a year leisure travelers all the time.

I know they're not called "business fares" and "leisure fares", but placing the minimum stay/weekend restrictions on these so-called "economy" fares makes these tickets unattractive to business travelers who need more flexibility. These become fares for leisure travelers by default.

I remember when I had to travel occasionally for business about 15 years ago, the cheap-ass company I worked for would pay the extra per diem and hotel stay to have us stay Saturday night if the difference between economy and full-fare coach tickets warranted this. Of course, since we were salaried, they didn't give a *feces* how many days we were away from home. So, admittedly, sometimes the minimum stay restriction doesn't necessarily work as planned, but I understand the motivation.

Did United state that they were not filling the gap with anything?  If two-day flight was $400 and proper-stayover was/is $400, perhaps they're just bumping two-day to $550 or so.  Same-day stays unchanged $800, in the example.