Originally Posted by
fastair
Sure, there may be more passengers that fly UA for this, but true lost revenue is easy to see
Urghh that fallacy again from a bean-counter.
Just because I book a one-way award from A to B, this does not mean that UA has somehow lost the exact value of a paid seat, that I would otherwise have paid some ridiculous price to travel on UA's one-way fare.
Same applies to the bean-counters' fallacious view of hidden-city-ticketing: if I book a low fare for, say, XXX-ORD-MKE and travel only XXX-ORD, UA has not "lost" the huge one-way fare for that sector. On the contrary, it's filled an empty seat and gained some revenue.
If one-way awards encourage MPers to burn UA miles, that's a bonus for UA, just like UA selling an otherwise-empty seat to a hidden-city-flier.
Edit - and it's the best thing that could happen to MP, for the customers. I'd even think of crediting to UA again.