Hi, it's Glenn, and it's Monday, November 1, and I'm calling from Chicago. Many of you have asked me why, given our financial challenges, we don't simply raise ticket prices.

It's a good question, and we have certainly tried to do so. But as we all think about new ways to improve the customer experience, we can't forget that our customers are faced with competitive choices every day.

The entire industry is facing fundamental, customer-driven change in the value proposition for air travel. As I said a moment ago, customers have more choices, and therefore they have more control, than ever before.

They have a wide range of airline products to pick from. Log onto the Internet and any travel search engine and the prices are there for every consumer to see, and easily so. This transparency creates revenue pressure across the system, and that's not going to change.

Having said that, there are some things that customers will pay for, and we must find ways to get the most out of what United has to offer. That is why we are expanding in international markets, where we are able to realize a greater premium for our product.

Today on the call, I have asked Dennis Cary, our new Vice President for Revenue Management, to talk about the new realities in the industry, and to provide some insight on how the Revenue Management team is combating the challenging marketplace. So, Dennis, over to you.

Dennis: Thanks, Glenn.

As Glenn said, we have led several attempts to increase fares in response to increasing fuel costs and other challenging conditions.

During the past 9 months, we have led 11 attempts to increase fares, with only 2 being partially matched by our competitors. In fact, the network carriers combined initiated 37 increases so far this year, only 14 of which were successful to some degree.

For the reasons that Glenn outlined, we face a very difficult environment to maintain fare increases and realize fare premiums, not just with our leisure travelers, but also with our business customers and their corporate travel departments, who are facing their own cost-cutting pressures. It takes only a few passengers who won't pay more to turn a price premium into a revenue loss. When we demand a five dollar price premium on a 200 dollar fare, if more than one in 40 customers choose to go on another airline when we had a seat available, we end up with lower total revenue.

Despite the fact that premiums are difficult to maintain, there are many markets where we do price at a premium to competitors who offer less value to customers. Our pricing team is constantly testing and adjusting our pricing strategy on a market-by-market basis in an effort to generate the highest possible revenue.

Earlier this year in a joint effort with ISD, we examined all of our business practices using an approach called process mapping, which helped us identify improvement opportunities that fall into several categories. Let me give you just a couple of examples:

We are changing the way we manage and distribute competitive pricing information to our pricing analysts and managers. In an environment where hundreds of thousands of fares change in the industry on a daily basis, we must be able to process, analyze and respond in a matter of a couple of hours.

We're also redesigning the user interface of our inventory management system, making it easier for our flight analysts to find the decision-critical information they need. This change will improve the consistency of our inventory management across the network.

And these are just a couple of the more than 50 discrete changes to our processes that will make us a smarter, faster competitor in this very challenging revenue environment.

So far this year, we've performed on par with our network competitors with regard to revenue generation. Our goal is to consistently produce industry-leading unit revenue. And with these changes, we are well on our way.

Glenn: Thanks, Dennis.

The analytical rigor that Dennis and his team are applying to the practice of revenue management reflects the type of work that we must pursue in recognition of the changing demands of our customers.

We are pursuing a number of ways to generate such premiums, in addition to the strong work that Dennis has described from himself and his team. Ted, our new p.s. service between California and New York, new international routes, and expansion in the services market with United Services are all examples of ways we can adapt to the new environment.

That said, you can be assured that our competitors are not sitting still. We have to find ways to continue to improve in all facets of our business. And we have to recognize and we have to accept the changed environment that we are now operating in.

By changing the way we do business and using the tools that we have been afforded -- on the cost and on the revenue fronts -- we can deliver on our ambition to make United a viable, sustainable and competitive enterprise.

So, until the next call, keep your heads up, stay focused, and stay United.