Changes/ United Airlines

All it took was hitting them where it hurts: their stock price. LOL.

Exactly!

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/02/news/companies/american-airlines-legroom/
American Airlines (AAL) is planning to decrease the front-to-back space between some of its economy class seats by another two inches.
The airline says it plans to add more seats on its coming Boeing (BA) 737 Max jetliners. To do that, it will shrink the distance between seats, also known as pitch, from 31 inches to 29 inches on three rows of the airplane, and down to 30-inches in the rest of its main economy cabin.
American isn't the only big airline heading in this direction. United Airlines (UAL) is considering a similar move, according to a person briefed on its evaluations. United declined to comment.