//bradfordbytes

The New United - Reflections from 34,000 ft.

If you ever wondered how frequent flyer friends talk (well, some), here’s an example…  Matthew ‘Gold Club’ Latuchie, whose United Airlines domain expertise is frankly unprecedented, muses here in an email drafted while he was in the air.  Fitting, indeed.  If you ever have questions on optimizing your segments, particularly on UA, Matt is your man.  Since United and Continental have officially announced a merger, naturally several questions emerge, and he’s betting here on the likely results that the consolidation would bring.

Note prolific use of airport codes acronyms, references to airplanes as ‘birds,’ and a novel tactic to potentially take advantage of codeshares on US Helicopter to the Hamptons.  Going to be looking into that one, for sure…

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From: Latuchie, Matthew
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 6:59 PM
To: Bucciarelli, Gary; Kuntscher, Bradford; Newman, Craig; McLaughlin, Graham
Subject: The New United - Reflections from 34,000 ft.

Figured I’d take this opportunity while in 6A on the 752 (DCA-ORD) to put together a couple additional thoughts as we continue to huddle nervously in our pods as the sky falls all around us. We’ve mostly been focused on the impacts to the frequent flyer program, so I thought I’d focus on everything else instead….

1)      Codeshares with Amtrak

a.       Amtrak and Continental have been linked for quite some time and I hope that the partnership continues over to the new United.

b.      Would be able to use your MP # on an Amtrak reservation and get those points into your account

c.       Redeem United miles on Amtrak

d.      Book itineraries to Europe without having to fly to EWR – take the Acela from WAS to EWR and connect to a European flight.

2)      Codeshares with US Helicopter

a.       My new favorite summertime activity is to use US Helicopter to fly from EWR to the Hamptons

             i.      This isn’t expensive

b.      Potential itinerary could be; DCA-EWR-SHA (South Hampton)

              i.      This way you get to avoid NYP and the LIRR on your way out to the eastern tip of Long Island

3)      Gain the Continental hub in GUM (Guam)

a.       This will be great if you’re trying to explore the Pacific Islands as there are many flights out of GUM to points all over the Pacific

                i.      It was weird to see a Continental 737 in Tokyo – thinking…that plane has NO CHANCE of making it back to the US – this was before I forgot that it’s only about 2.5 hours from NRT-GUM!

4)      Consolidation is necessary to save the air industry

a.       Much like the explosion in the housing market there had been an explosion in airline capacity since 9/11/01 that needed to be fixed

b.      In order for the US airline industry to maintain any sort of resemblance to what we know today, there has to be cuts to capacity

               i.      I anticipate a lot of flights in and out of CLE to be cut as traffic is routed to ORD

1.       This of course causes its own set of issues…but that’s a whole different discussion

2.       An example of the shifting of lift out of CLE would be cities like SBN or LAN – I can’t imagine them continuing to have flights to both ORD and CLE (luckily, those planes will get deployed on new routes or be added to existing routes)

           ii.      It will be interesting to see how trans-Atlantic traffic is adapted.

1.       EWR is closer via the Great Circle Routes to Europe than IAD, but that doesn’t affect the strategic importance of WAS to the UA network

2.       I imagine there might be consolidation to cities like LON

a.       Considering there are 2x flights/day from SFO/LAX/IAH, 3x flights/day from IAD/ORD/EWR/, and seasonal service to DEN/CLE.                                                                                                                            

          i.      Meaning that during the summer months there would be 20 daily UA flights to LHR…that’s crazy.

5)      UA Metal

a.       Continental has firm orders for B787 aircraft that were submitted long before UA recently submitted their orders for the B787 and Airbus A350XWB, so it’ll be great to get these birds earlier than the original 2016 delivery date.

b.      Continental’s B7x7 fleet is the youngest and most fuel efficient in the US (jury is still out about the cabin configs – this is probably the biggest question mark at this point)

c.       Continental also has new B777-LRs which have better range than the UA 777-200

              i.      These birds fly EWR-DEL, IAH-NRT (i.e. incredibly far, high-revenue routes)

1.       Look for them to pop up on some routes to/from SYD

d.      Continental’s Express fleet only features ERJ-145 that has the spectacular single seat along the left-side of the plane (12C being one of the better seats in the domestic express fleet)

             i.      Looking forward to seeing more of these than the CRJ-200s.

e.      Will UA decide to get any of their 757s ETOPS certified since the 757 can make it from EWR to Europe with ease.

6)      Hubs

a.       United’s major hole in their route network has always been the Caribbean/Central/South America – and now with IAH, there aren’t many places we won’t be able to reach.

b.      CLE will probably be turned into a focus city

c.       The new runway at ORD will probably get accelerated as I expect some of the traffic leaving CLE may end up there

d.      I could see some capacity being unloaded from EWR to IAD

e.      I imagine that one of the first major plans of the new UA will be to announce construction plans for the new mid-field United Global Gateway at IAD…it’ll be tight.

f.        Despite IAH being my least favorite airport to connect in, the big benefit is that the airspace above it lacks the traffic that all other UA hubs battle against. This means that delays out and into IAH aren’t too bad.

g.       NRT/HNL/LON/SEA will all assume focus city/scissor-hub status (IMO)

                     i.      The situation in SEA will be interesting to monitor as CO runs flights up to ANC/HNL/NRT from there – the NRT route will now be combined with UA’s already exisiting SEA-NRT direct flight…so not sure what to expect there.

                ii.      I bet that the newly announced season ORD/SFO/DEN-ANC service will be tweaked since much of the capacity could be fed through SEA now.

7)      Coolest New Routes from CO

a.       EWR-BOM

b.      EWR-HNL

c.       IAH-SCL

d.      HNL-GUM

e.      EWR-TXL

f.        IAH-LIM

8)      CO Soft Product/Website (things to wish for)

a.       CO still offers free meals in economy on most domestic flights

b.      Their flight attendants are much nicer

c.       First class seats on CO birds are generally newer and more comfortable

d.      First class food is better

             i.      Had an amazing steak on an IAH-ABQ flight a couple years ago

e.      You’re able to specific the booking class of your ticket during the purchase process

f.        Continental offers “instant upgrade” fares (M/H class) that, without applying a certificate, process automatic upgrades (these upgrades are bucketed – so they are not always available – ticket prices are about 10%-15% higher) at the time of booking

Needless to say, I’ll do my best to stay on top of all the changes and will reach out to y’all when I hear updates. And don’t forget, the most enjoyable thing to do while sitting in first class on UA is to listen to Big Poppa by Biggie….while everyone walks by you thinking to themselves, “how’d that kid end up in first?”

Oh, and congrats to Craig for nailing the IAD-SMF upgrade as only a 2P – great route to get upgraded on!

Travel safely, stay united.

Matthew Latuchie 

Dedicated Advisor, Business Intelligence 

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