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Here we go again — and I have to ask, “What are they thinking?” Beginning in October, United Airlines is going to start requiring “minimum stays” for its cheapest fares – one to three nights, or, a weekend night — for nearly all its domestic flights. Talk about “back to the future” – for the most part, these minimum stay rules were scrapped years ago — but United has revived them, to help combat the high price of jet fuel. Keep reading and I’ll explain exactly what this can mean…for all of us. |
Business travelers will be especially hard hit by this latest United policy change — I’m talking about the “road warriors” who want to get “in and out” of a destination, you know, do their job then head for home. Well they can still do that — IF they pay a premium.
According to this report from AP (with info provided by the always reliable United spokesperson Robin Urbanski) “How long passengers have to stay under United’s new minimum-stay policy will depend on the destinations involved, the price of the ticket and the length of the flight. For example, travelers booking the cheapest seats between Chicago and Minneapolis or Boston and San Diego will now be forced to stay three nights or the entire weekend.”
The big question: will others join the “minimum stay” rule? Or is it a matter of when?
so - United forces business travelers to buy more expensive tickets and thereby make more money - and - maybe they also have a deal with hotels to get a cut of the room charge for those who end up staying overnight? How about a cut from the meals purchased by those staying longer? And for renting a car for more than a day, etc - the opportunities to make deals with hotels, car rental agencies, etc are just endless. The sooner United goes bankrupt the better - good bye United Airlines.
Comment by toomanyfeesalready — June 21, 2008 @ 7:41 am
I have never completely understood the reasoning behind this policy. Could you explain in simple terms how longer stays “help combat the high price of jet fuel”?
Comment by Ron Boyd — June 21, 2008 @ 10:02 am
Rick, did you miss the line on those linked articles about the fare raise for the least expensive tickets? My impression is that was a separate item. Or is that those fares are being raised if you don’t meet the minimum stay requirements?
toomanyfeesalready, you may say goodbye to UA for now, but you know just as well that either the other carriers will join UA in this initiative and then you will pay the premium no matter who you fly, or they won’t and UA will back down.
Fact is, everything is so unpredictable these days, you don’t know which will be the next airline that will try something that will convince you never to fly them again….that is, until everyone else follow suit.
Comment by Elliot Campbell — June 21, 2008 @ 10:31 am
Basically United raised prices on there very cheapest airfares for travel after October 5, much of this is playing some catch up with Southwest. More importantly the minimum stay bar seems to be being raised which is bad news for bargain hunters
Comment by Rick Seaney — June 22, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
Alienating your best customers: that’s a recipe for success. These idiots deserve to go bankrupt again, and hopefully will be liquidated as opposed to “reorganized” at our (taxpayer’s) expense.
Comment by Hillrider — June 23, 2008 @ 12:27 pm