Big news for New York City travelers, as United announced plans to move its premium service (p.s.) flights from JFK to Newark and discontinue service to JFK starting on October 25, 2015.
United cuts p.s. because it was not making money
I don’t blame United for doing this — in fact, I speculated UA might abandon JFK when the IAD-JFK service was cancelled last autumn. As it turned out, UA was losing money for years at JFK.
United Airlines said Tuesday it plans to end service in October at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where it failed to profit over seven years because it offered few connections to other cities.
Bottom line, United could not keep up with the competition. This should humble United greatly.
Two years ago, United had a huge competitive advantage on this route — Delta and American offered an inferior hard product and even Virgin America, who put downward pressure on airfare, did not offer the lie-flat seats that United did.
Today, the landscape is different. JetBlue now offers a premium business class lie-flat product called Mint with prices starting at $599 one-way. Delta and American now have 100% lie-flat service and AA’s new A321s have a three-cabin first class section.
As is sadly often the case for United, it could not compete and, subject to DOT approval, will trade its JFK slots for Delta’s slots at Newark.
Newark will become a fortress hub for United
Arguably, EWR is already a fortress hub, but travelers who prefer Liberty International Airport will see many enhancements in the months ahead:
- More frequencies between EWR and LAX/SFO — up to 17x per day to SFO and 15x per day to Los Angeles
- All flights between these cities will feature p.s. service
- In order to accommodate this increased reliance on 757-200s for p.s. service, United will reassign some former Continental 757-200s currently serving Europe, upgauging those European flights to 767s.
- No word yet on whether the 757s being pulled off transatlantic flights (which have only 16 business class seats versus 28 seats on the p.s.-configured 757s) will eventually be reconfigured
- TXL (Berlin), HAM (Hamburg), MAD (Madrid) and BCN (Barcelona) will get widebody service
- Impressive terminal improvements (which I will outline in a future post) including several new restaurants and the ability to pay for food/drink/products with United miles
The JFK vs. EWR debate
There is no need to debate whether EWR is a “real” New York City airport or the relative ease of travel to/from EWR vs. JFK.
We know that Uber charges about the same. We also know that public transportation options are available but a bit tedious from both airports. I prefer the JFK AirTrain connecting to Long Island Railroad over the EWR Airtrain connecting to NJ Transit or Amtrak, but ultimately, the convenience winner depends upon where in New York you need to get it.
Here’s what I do know — Award Expert has hundreds of regular, wealthy clients in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York; the type that buy full-fare business class tickets or will give Delta 250K for a r/t coast-to-coast journey (yes, we do try to talk them out of it).
They all hate Newark.
I mention Newark and they almost always reply, “Uh…no New Jersey please.” Now it could be that my sample size is just not big enough, but I doubt it. The premium crowd likes JFK, not EWR. I’ve seen it again and again.
So I hope that United will work quite hard in promoting its improvements to EWR and aggressively make the case that getting into Manhattan from Newark is not all that bad.
For United travelers connecting through Newark to Europe, the ability to travel from the west coast to Europe, Israel, or India in a full-lie flat seat is a big selling point.
No more complimentary upgrades on Newark p.s. routes
United has already updated its award chart to reflect p.s. flights out of Newark (wish they could fix customer-unfriendly glitches as fast…) and though we do not have the official announcement yet, that is going to mean two things–
- No more complimentary upgrades for elites between EWR and SFO/LAX on p.s. flights
- Outrageous mileage + co-pay necessary if you wish to use miles to upgrade and even elites will not be exempt from co-pay
The current price to upgrade a p.s. flight is 20,000 miles + $250 each-way. That is ridiculous if you ask me. When United and Virgin America went to war on the LAX-EWR route, that transcon route became about the easiest system to score an upgrade on. My upgrade clearance rate was perfect and I was traveling from Newark to LAX every week while still in Philadelphia.
I’m still speculating of course, but you can bet that there will be no free upgrades on these routes.
Free lounge access in jeopardy for p.s. premium passengers?
Currently United offers free lounge access for p.s. business class passengers. Its new graphic even mentions this–
Problem is that JFK was perfect for that — with no other flights beyond a handful of flights to SFO and LAX, the lounge could easily accommodate all premium passengers. But EWR is different — it is a hub in which the lounges already become unbearably crowded in the afternoons and early evenings before the bank of departures to Europe.
Throw in two dozen p.s. flights and the already-crowded lounges may well become worse than the gate areas. United promises to remodel its clubs, but what it really needs is more clubs or more space in its existing clubs.
My guess is that premium class passengers will lose lounge access.
Move is a Kick in the Star Alliance Shin, Boon to JetBlue
JFK is all but abandoned by United, but still a dominant Star Alliance airport with international service on the following carriers–
- Air Canada
- Toronto – YYZ
- Air China
- Beijing – PEK
- Air India
- Delhi – DEL
- Mumbai – BOM
- ANA
- Tokyo – NRT
- Asiana
- Seoul – ICN
- Austrian
- Vienna- VIE
- Avianca
- Bogota – BOG
- Palmira – CLO
- Cartegnena – CTG
- Medellín – MDE
- Pereira – PEI
- San Salvador – SAL
- San Pedro Sula – SAP
- Brussels
- Brussels – BRU
- EgyptAir
- Cairo – CAI
- EVA
- Taipei – TPE
- LOT
- Warsaw -WAW
- Lufthansa
- Frankfurt – FRA
- Munich – FRA
- Singapore
- Frankfurt – FRA (Singapore – SIN)
- South African
- Johannesburg – JNB
- Swiss
- Geneva – GVA
- Zurich – ZRH
- Turkish
- Istanbul – IST
Meanwhile, Newark has some overlap and unique service on United’s Star Alliance partners–
- Air Canada
- Calgary – YYC
- Montreal – YUL
- Toronto – YYZ
- Vancouver – YVR
- Air India
- Mumbai – BOM
- Austrian
- Vienna – VIE
- Lufthansa
- Dusseldorf – DUS
- Frankfurt – FRA
- Munich – MUC
- SAS
- Copenhagen – CPH
- Oslo – OSL
- Stockholm – ARN
- Swiss
- Zurich – ZRH
- TAP
- Lisbon – LIS
- Oporto – OPO
Problem for all those JFK carriers is that their passengers are not going to want to transfer to Newark for domestic connections and that is going to force many carriers, as some like Lufthansa already do, to codeshare with other airlines. It won’t be Delta or American, leaving JetBlue as the most likely candidate.
In Summary
Of course I am bummed that UA is leaving JFK — not that JFK had United’s best staff — but when you lose money for seven years, change is necessary. I hate to see the airline I love cede one of the most (traditionally) lucrative and historic markets, but faced with the reality that it was seeing nothing but red, I support the Newark strategy (better than just killing off p.s.) and hope that Newark can become a world-class hub with a much more seamless connection experience.
Check out Rocky’s take on the news as well.
I’ve seen many people discuss the future lack of Star connectivity to United, but it doesn’t seem like there was much to begin with, considering there were only two routes left.
I don’t think many customers from Asia, Canada, or Central/South America connected in JFK to get to SFO/LAX, and many of those that did will have a PS option through EWR. Connections from Europe can take nonstop options on LH/LX or continue to have many one-stop Star options through UA/AC/LH/LX hubs.
I want to know how likely UA will make a deal with AMTRAK to streamline EWR-Penn(NYC), either by codesharing or outright discounting. People live in New Jersey have some high tolerance of inconvenience to begin with. We Manhattanites don’t. If going to EWR stays as painful as it is now, I will give back my club card to UA and switch to AA. I suspect I will not be alone.
I had a friend who I never knew to be intoxicated tell me that United was abandoning JFK. I asked what he was drinking but he wasn’t—turns out he was right. Our offices are on Long Island and our West Coast Offices are in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is a very bad move on Continental’s part. (Oh, sorry, there may be a few out there that don’t realize Continental took over United==and think they merged). I am a Global Services member, as is one of my associates. We have two Premier Golds and one Premier in our Law Firm. All Global Services Members fly full Business and First and the Gold’s fly Business over 1,500 miles. Goodbye United!!/Good Bye our UA Explorer Cards and hello American who is offering us the same status for the first year providing we give them the same level of travel and pay which we will. BIG, BIG mistake on Continental’s (excuse me) United’s part. They are losing money at JFK? I haven’t flown a flight in the last 4 years coast to coast that had an empty seat! AND the airfares have never been higher and the fuel is cheap. If they are indeed losing money the mechanics and ground personnel at JFK must be getting $300. an hour. This will turn out to be one of the most colossal business errors in American Business history which will probably be studied in Harvard Business School for years to come.
I’m a business traveler whose company “prefers” its employees use UA. I fly frequently to SFO. Problem is, I live on Long Island and I’ll be damned if I’m going to start getting up an hour earlier just to make an EWR-SFO flight. Nope, not gonna happen. I’ll fly Virgin America from now on. And I’ll bet I’m not the only Long Island-California business traveler who feels this way.