Airline fare and class discussion

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The US3-ME3 alignments look as follows:

1. AA - QR
2. UA - EK
3. DL - ?

Of course the only one of the classic Gulf States ME3 left to pick is Etihad.
Good to know. I have not yet flown on any ME3, in part because they rarely show up in my searches, are not as logistically advantageous for North American pax, and I have some issues with the morals/ethics of the host countries. That being said none of these issues are enough to prevent future travel and the day will likely come when an ME3 flight works for me. These days I mainly fly AA/DL domestic and JL/NH international but I'm generally open to new airlines and aircraft.

I felt similarly disoriented when I first flew in August last year, and that was a trip to India that involved a giant IROPS, being rerouted and rebooked by UA from a EWR - (UA) - DEL - (Vistara) - CCU, to EWR - (UA) - MUC - (LH) - BOM - (AI) - CCU arriving almost exactly 24 hours later, all due to a UA mechanical issue at EWR. UA did provide hotel and food in Newark.
Yikes. Was it a 787? UA + 787 always seemed to be a MX problem back when I flew them regularly. That being said UA did help me when the inbound ORD clusterfork was going to leave me stranded (on AA). I was confused by the insistence that I present my transfer document to a UA kiosk but once they let me approach the counter everything worked out.

JetBlue Mint is technically Business Class, but with lie-flat seats and real meals.
This a good point but unlike F/J on AA/DL/UA routes that offer Mint service on B6 are relatively limited.

JetBlue-Mint-Route-Map-min.jpg
 
I have been keeping an eye on Business Class round trip fares to Kolkata from Orlando for a trip sometime in Jan-Feb 2024. Like everywhere else, the fares are through the roof, but it is not quite 4-6 months out yet, when the lower fares become available. Still there are some interesting oddities.

As you might be aware United (UA) now has codeshare with Emirates (EK). So the lowest they quote at present is a tad over $12,000 on a code share routing MCO-EWR-DXB-(EK)-CCU. They also quote a similar fare on the routing MCO-EWR-DEL-(AI)-CCU. All well and good, and it will probably drop to as low as $6K or so in a few months. But then EK quotes $7K on a routing all EK MCO-DXB-CCU, just one stop! A reasonable question to ask is why would anyone bother with the UA fare, which takes more hops, takes longer overall and has inferior United service to go with it to boot! And with the EK fare you get Chauffeured Car Service from home to the airport and airport to destination and vice versa on the way back included in the fare.

Sometimes these things make very little sense.
 
I’ve found that almost any UA-ticketed itinerary that involves J class on another carrier seems to instantly book into extremely high fare classes. My guess is UA doesn’t have access to many/any lower fare classes on partner carriers. With codeshares, I suppose it’s somewhat different (I guess UA could set their own fares on their code), but I have a lot less familiarity with the machinations of revenue management when it comes to code sharing.
 
Like everywhere else, the fares are through the roof
Domestically I can still find reasonable F/J fares but most intercontinental business is being priced at a significant double-premium. The long haul flights that are pricing reasonably are on carriers I would prefer to avoid (PR, SV) or come with excessive layovers (AY).

A reasonable question to ask is why would anyone bother with the UA fare, which takes more hops, takes longer overall and has inferior United service to go with it to boot!
Because they do not shop around, are dismissive of the ME3, and/or focused on a US3 loyalty program? That's the only way I can explain why JL can sell me cheaper codeshares than I can get from AA.com.
 
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