The prices are because of the recent big airline mergers (Alaska/Virgin America 2016, US Air/American '13, United/Continental '10, Delta/Northwest '09) [1]. Un

The prices are because of the recent big airline mergers (Alaska/Virgin America 2016, US Air/American '13, United/Continental '10, Delta/Northwest '09) [1]. United does its heavy maintenance in Beijing, China [2], so some maintenance issues are inevitable. I find it amazing that their planes even fly, it must be a huge logistical hassle. [1] http://airlines.org/dataset/u-s-airline-mergers-and-acquisitions/ http://airlines.org/dataset/u-s-airline-mergers-and-acquisit... [2] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/airplane-maintenance-disturbing-truth https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/airplane-maintenance... (When this Vanity Fair article was written, 2015, American still did major maintenance in the US, but apparently not for much longer: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/25/american-airlines-workers-protest-job-outsourcing-in-miami.html http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/25/american-airli... )