There was Shuttle by United and wasn't there a brief (thought likely never enacted) attempt by United to match US Air's Metrojet, Delta's Express and similar service? Shuttle by United suffered from many of the problems that I believe AC addressed with Tango. Shuttle pax connected with regular United flights. As did their bags, their frequent flier miles etc. Other than the logo on the side, the missing J class seats, it was United, so you expected United. I think you are exactly right, the 'shuttle' product augmented the regular United service, so closely that it really was one and the same. The US Air Shuttle of course is a different creature. Matthew On Thursday, November 21, 2002, at 11:05 AM, Jon Wright wrote: > On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Matthew Montano wrote: > >> United-Lite was (I'm guessing here) simply sold as a "cheaper" United. >> Expectations for hub-n-spoke, re-routing, luggage connections, meals >> etc, were never tempered. Customer satisfaction is in the pits and it >> goes down hill from there. > > I never really figured out why UA pulled the plug on U2. I flew it > often between SEA and SFO. On that particular route they competed > directly with Alaska and Shuttle By United indirectly competed with > Southwest and Alaska between Seattle and other Bay Area airports. > In spite of all that competition, the loads on the Shuttle were > annoyingly (from a passenger's view) high. > > They did some innovative stuff (for a non-Southwest major): > > * Zoned "WILMA" boarding > * Using the aft door to board and deplane passengers > * Loading galleys so they didn't need to be stocked after each leg > * Putting trash compactors in galleys to save space > > The Shuttle service seemed to augment the hubs in LAX, SFO, and > ultimately DEN. > > From my perspective, there was no customer backlash of people > avoiding the Shuttle. The only thing I can figure is that the > overhead of maintaining an "airline within an airline" exceeded > whatever operational savings they could wring out of the Shuttle. > > Anyway, can anyone illuminate exactly why UA decided the Shuttle > wasn't in the plan? > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jon Wright jwright@halcyon.com voice 425-635-0338 > fax 425-844-1403 > You've got a hard lip, Herbert. http://www.spudboy.com/~jwright