American Airlines has gone to war with United in Chicago, and United is fighting back. It’s a war where United clearly has the advantage.
- They’re bigger in Chicago
- They have more gates, and American can’t really grow. American just lost 3 gates to United.
- They’re based in Chicago and have the city and governor on their site
- They’re profitable, so in a better position to stem losses that go along with excess capacity from ‘strategic’ flying.
United actually announced a big ramp up in Chicago the morning of American’s earnings call in order to guarantee that financial analysts would pressure American on its strategy in fighting for the city in a way likely to generate losses.
Still, I love to see airlines to head to head. And I especially love to see American – which for years has eschewed direct competition of almost any kind – having some fight left in them.
But what’s funny is that part of United’s playbook isn’t just playing analysts and dumping capacity. It’s also trolling. Whenever they get into a fight with another airline they take out billboard ads, and sometimes social media ads. They did it with Southwest in Denver. They did it against American in Chicago a little bit a year ago.
Here are United’s latest, which I hadn’t seen:
“AAdvantage, United” feels a bit too on the nose to me, since United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was directly responsible for much of the devaluation in the AAdvantage program during his time as President of American Airlines. It came at his direction, or that of United’s current Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella.
The AAdvantage team didn’t want to copy Delta and United with revenue-based points-earning. They preferred premium fare bonuses, but were overruled. The AAdvantage team didn’t like the name ‘Platinum Pro’ for their new 75K elite tier (believing the name sounded too much like an employee of a Nevada whorehouse) but Kirby stuck them with it. On April 8, 2014 AAdvantage eliminated double miles standard awards, taking away last seat award availability at reasonable prices, and eliminated distance-based awards altogether – without any advance notice. Members felt massacred. That came from top levels of former US Airways management, too.
So to the extent there’s an AAdvantage, United today it’s because Kirby did damage to American before he wound up helping to revitalize United.
UA seems to want ORD to become PIT or STL for AA.
To the extent “Kirby did damage to American before he wound up helping to revitalize United” he did it with Doug Parker’s permission.
This. Is. Just. Blog. Hype. No one IRL cares at all. Unless and until fares actually drop, devaluations stop, and publicly available deals emerge, this isn’t a real ‘turf’ war. It’s astro-turfing.
United has and is now doing a disservice to the flyers at ORD. They cannot and do not go everywhere people need to go. Pritzker and Johnson, once again, are derelict in their duties to serve the people of Chicago and Illinois. Competition is a good thing in the Airline Industry since having only one choice leaves travelers at the mercy of the only game in town.
Shows you how dumb these execs are. No normal passenger is going to understand the AAdvantage reference.
@Mike — 100%. Tone deaf.
Living in Chicago, wish United took that money and stopped its fight and gave lower fares and/or take better care of their employees instead of using it for. ads- Hope American stays competitive, not just bc I have higher AA status than United, but bc its better for everyone -competition is good IMHO
Yesterday was the culmination of the season of differentiation between the big 3. DL kicked off earnings season with earnings that everyone knew could not be topped in the US airline industry and added a cherry with the 787 order, proving that DL is the only US airline that can source both narrowbodies and widebodies from both Airbus and Boeing and profitably operate and sustain all of that complexity.
UA posted earnings last week and did its usual bragging – all to hide the fact that DL earned 50% more than UA even though UA flew 10% more ASMs.
Yesterday, AA’s earnings showed how bad of a situation the company is in and the fact that they cannot turn things around which does have implications for why they can’t execute on operations or maintaining even their current fleet; financial health is not disconnected from the passenger experience.
And, in its usual arrogance, UA trolled AA while DL announced the Airbus widebody order.
Kirby and co. talk about running a company based on emotion and yet he demonstrates the least amount of emotional maturity of practically any US CEO
While AA continues to underperform and UA thinks it is its job to take out every airline not named DL – with which UA will never win any contest – DL doubled down on going after the one key distinction that UA touts as its advantage – the international market.
DL already has the most versatile, efficient and capable international fleet and the distance between DL and the rest of the US industry will only grow.
A rejuvenated WN poses a bigger threat to UA – which is running a far more reliable operation than UA – than any other of the big 3. Maybe WN will take out billboards in DEN and other UA hub cities (which are often also WN “hub” metros) and highlight how well WN did the Wall Street Journal’s rankings of airlines – and how bad UA did.
This has been quite the week in the airline industry and highlights what is in store for 2026 and beyond.
As a UA 1K, I’d also note that AA has a far better frequent flyer program than UA. UA can puff all they want, but that’s the single biggest difference between these two very similar airlines.
When it comes to the airlines we have little choice and no real competition like we once had.
@Tim Dunn — Brag all you want while you can. Delta is a VERY similar airline to UA and AA, and its very meh hub locations will almost certainly bring it down to earth in the very foreseeable future. Like how much will the insanity in MSP cost DL in the next 5 years? It’s obvious to everyone now that the economic future of this country is in Texas and Florida, not Minnesota and Michigan.
@Chopsticks — I’m with you that all airlines (and businesses, and people) are about to struggle, because there’s a silent recession, growing louder and louder. Nah, Texas is oil and Florida is tourism/corruption; that’s not much of an economy. California and New York still run the show.
@Chopsticks — As far as the top-tier earnable frequent flyer programs, I’d argue Delta Diamond is still better than AA Executive Platinum and UA Premier 1K. I’ve been each, and the GUCs and RUCs actually confirm in-advance as opposed to the SWU and PlusPoints. JetBlue Mosaic’s Move to Mint are similar to Delta, so that’s a plus, but it’s a smaller airline and program. These days, it’s not even worth considering complimentary upgrades, because they’re so few and far between, even at top.
If I move back to Chicago, I’ll still be flying with AA (I fly OneWorld as well). One thing I would like to see AA have is a subscription model for Premium Economy like UA does.
Tell us how much the insanity in Minneapolis impacted the airport since you are convinced that the media has turned all of Minnesota into a wasteland.
Of course you can’t show us data to back up your point because it hasn’t happened.
And the point about hubs is that DL figured out years ago that “owning” its hub markets provides the financial strength that AA and UA are now fighting over
and if you think Illinois is some thriving bastion of economic growth while MI and MN are not, you are as biased as you are ignorant.
NW”s dual Midwest hub strategy which DL has only expanded on means that DL owns not just its big 4 hub metros but also the Midwest and SE other than S. Florida.
AA and UA would love to be able to say that about as much of the US as DL can say.
none of which changes that DL is sitting back and watching this all play out in Chicago and doubling down on DL’s growth in the parts of the world where UA is strongest.
UA can decide to fight a battle with AA or let DL clean up in key international markets. Since DL has so much more financial strength than UA, Kirby’s best strategy might well be to fight AA where it likely will win some territory – even as DL wins in more and more international markets with larger, more efficient and longer range aircraft..
Looks like they’re just listing what’s available. Sure, there are more flights: You can choose between AAdvantage and United (and probably others that they haven’t mentioned). A colon instead of a comma might have given them their desired effect.
@Tim Dunn — Minneapolis isn’t about media, or data, or the airport; it’s about abuse of power, an increasingly authoritarian government murdering its own citizens. Delta (UA, AA, B6, WN, and all of us) should be preparing for economic downturn, and I’m sure, behind the scenes, it is. Now, you won’t admit that, but, maybe you, too, should prepare mentally. Like, get your talking-points, in-order.
Kirby better get ready for a lawsuit. AAdvantage is a “Registered” name, much stronger than a trademark. Their lame marketing department should have stopped it. Plus, they sort of promote the AAdvantage program which is already better then UAs (I used to work the agency that ran it. . . UA is still a SS I am told).
Not smart UA, you going to get press and sued for a basic marketing rule violation. Kirby is just a spoiled, bitter child and why I will never fly UA again. AA has their issues but they are smart enough to know basic marketing rules.
On the contrary, there is considerable choice and competition. Most of it, however, involves alternatives such as internet-based conferencing to avoid having to fly at all.
@Denver Refugee — Zing!
@Denver Refugee — ‘Airline CEOs hate this one trick…’
@sunvking82 – he didn’t use “AAdvantage” but simply the world advantage. Sure we all know exactly what he meant but that isn’t the basis for a lawsuit regarding copyright infringement. You can’t copyright a commonly used word. BTW even if there was a basis for a lawsuit (which there isn’t) American would be crazy to file it since that simply provides more publicity for United’s stunt.
Dear Retired Gambler. Please read the ad more carefully. It did, sir, say “AAdvantage, United.”
@1990 – On the other hand, when it’s 8:00 AM and you’re already on the second Teams call of the morning, even flying Frontier doesn’t sound so bad…
@Sunviking
I’d imagine Scott Kirby actually hopes he gets sued about this to increase the publicity of what he’s trying to get out there. I’d imagine that’s why the billboards are digital so they can quickly be taken down with little cost
Scott Kirby is a very vain man but he’s not a stupid one.
@Denver Refugee — Oof. Economy-Minus!
“Less canceled flights.” That’s compelling marketing right there.
Someone at United needs a grammar lesson on the distinction between “fewer” and “less”
@Sunviking82—You said, “Kirby better get ready for a lawsuit. AAdvantage is a “Registered” name, much stronger than a trademark. Their lame marketing department should have stopped it.” I agree. In response, I expect the AA C-Suite to issue strong criticism, perhaps even erecting a giant billboard naming Kirby the official AAsshole of United Airlines. Or should AA respond more diplomatically and refer to Kirby in less inflammatory terms, by calling Kirby the official rectal aperture or the anal orifice of United Airlines? If they want to keep things classy, perhaps AA will distribute a complimentary AA-branded air freshener to boarding passengers, designed to hang from a vehicle’s rear-view mirror, in honor of Kirby. With unique scents like “rectal aperture” and “anal orifice”—nothing would say corporate diplomacy like a whiff of sarcasm at 30,000 feet.
Tim, UA is more profitable than DL at running the airline, and they are very good at competing. A battle with AA in ORD is no different than the battles they have to fight at every single hub. DL is the one that isn’t good at competing since they’ve rarely had to do it.
DL’s earnings are propped up by fortress hubs where they don’t have to compete, bolstering below average performance where they have to compete. NYC, where they have an inefficient, RJ-heavy split hub where they are shrinking as UA grows.
SEA, where they continue to lose ground to AS, AUS, where they are throwing RJs against a dominant WN. LAX, where they can’t get above 20% share.
UA’s EPS grew in 2025 while DL’s shrank. UA is making significant strides in credit card revenue agreements and the new agreement with Chase will almost certainly close that last gap.
DL is the only airline that can get planes from Boeing and Airbus? Huh? UA is taking delivery of 120 planes this year, including 20 widebodies, furthering their already huge lead in widebody fleet.
DL will take delivery of a few dozen widebodies over the next few *years*.
All of your words and babble are clearly meant to distract from UA’s momentum and DL’s lack of it, while also attempting to distract from the truth that UA clear as day to the rest of it.
Of course you’re completely unsuccessful, but we all know you won’t stop trying.
PS – where do you find the time to hit refresh on every single blog comment sections and type paragraph after paragraph. You say it’s “speech to text” but you still have to refresh, read, formulate, thoughts, text, proofread. Every post you make confirms you have way too much time on your hands.
1990
I am not commenting on whether what is going on in Minneapolis is right or not but it surely isn’t smart to taunt anyone with a weapon, law enforcement or not. and that has happened twice.
Their families will ask whether it was worth it and I doubt if the answer will be yes.
I am saying that there is little to no impact on MSP or DL’s hub there.
In fact, DL has probably benefitted more from AA’s week long operational meltdown than anything that ICE could do in the opposite direction.
none of which changes that DL is sitting in the catbird seat from its hubs in DTW and MSP while AA and UA extract blood over Chicago.
If more competition leads to lower prices, it’s a win for passengers. If it’s flying empty planes and more unnecessary destruction to the Earth’s climate, it’s a loss for us all.
I find it interesting when airlines fight over cities and have focus cities, etc; most flying passengers care about 1 thing more than anything else. Price, price, price and price. Convenience nowadays is an afterthought. I’m too far into American and becoming a million miler to become a free agent. Their prices, schedules and partners within OneWorld suit me very nicely so I won’t be switching anytime soon.
Wait wait wait, has anyone actually photographed these billboards in action over the Kennedy Expressway? Because when you look closely at both images, the cars down below are in the EXACT same positions in both photos. What is being presented as evidence right now is the work of Photoshop.
Moreover, there are no leaves on any trees in Chicago right now. It’s the dead of winter. This is not current.
@Tim
Just saw a 500K skypeso redemption for biz to Paris. If your mother doesn’t object, you should jump on it.
@1990 is correct. Until the traveler experience is elevated (fat chance of that happening anytime soon) all the marketing hype and posturing is nothing more than dried snot.