Industry to B. Ben Baldanza. WAKE UP!

Now, US has made itself even more uncompetitive with UA and virtually the rest of the industry! Save the $25 stand-by fee and have a full year to use the remainder of your ticket on UA!

P.S. Can we have Greg Taylor back????

P.P.S You can enjoy all of these benefits have have GLASSes on UA! Somebody stop me the swith itch is growing. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

United Announces Changes to Nonrefundable Ticket Policy
Friday August 22, 5:43 pm ET
Customers Can Make Changes Up to a Year After Original Ticketing Date Without Losing Value of Ticket If They Cancel by Scheduled Departure Date

CHICAGO, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United Airlines (OTC Bulletin Board: UALAQ - News) today announced that effective Saturday, August 23rd customers with nonrefundable tickets who cancel their domestic reservations on or before their scheduled departure date will have a full year from the date their original ticket was issued to reschedule (less any applicable change fees), without losing the value of their tickets.
Under United's previous policy, customers who wished to make changes with nonrefundable tickets had to cancel and have their ticket reissued no later than the originally scheduled departure date.

"Our new policy will make travel easier by giving our customers increased flexibility, " said Greg Taylor, Senior Vice President - Planning. "Our customers who purchase nonrefundable tickets now have up to a full year to rebook their travel."

Customers can cancel flights or reschedule by calling their travel agent or United Airlines at 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331).

That makes at least 5 of the majors making similar announcements (about non-refundable tix) this week. Can't imagine US will be too far behind http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by JL-327 (edited 08-22-2003).]

Dear Ben,
In honor of your "Black Tuesday" debacle I sincerely hope you will use the same day to announce something that is customer positive.

Sincerely
The Pinester

As the great Lee Iacocca once said about Chrysler: "Either Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way,"

The only thing US leads is pulling out of cities where there is direct competition, turning first class into no class.

As usual, US will be the last airline to make the switch.

Just reinforces my earlier decision to fly UA and earn US miles as a rule. First it was price, now add flexibility...

Got an upcoming flight I'm looking at...exact same US flights, just codeshare numbers.

UA: $177.50
US: $229.50

UA: requires 14 day advance purchase
US: requires 21 day advance purchase

UA: standby earlier/later for no fee
US: standby for $25

UA: may be canceled in advance and the residual applied to another ticket after paying the change fee
US: yeah right

So we've got a 4-0 for UA (didn't think I'd ever say that...). Seems a little odd, but I never claimed they made any sense.

I think we need some sort of comparison chart, UA vs. US. I think this would help wake people up. To include: use it or lose it, IFE Comparison, Premium F Class i.e glasses and real cutlery, Stand-by fees etc.

UA has a far superior product with more flexibility than US right now and that saddens me because it was always the reverse.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by StSebastian:
Got an upcoming flight I'm looking at...exact same US flights, just codeshare numbers.

UA: $177.50
US: $229.50

UA: requires 14 day advance purchase
US: requires 21 day advance purchase

UA: standby earlier/later for no fee
US: standby for $25

UA: may be canceled in advance and the residual applied to another ticket after paying the change fee
US: yeah right

So we've got a 4-0 for UA (didn't think I'd ever say that...). Seems a little odd, but I never claimed they made any sense.</font>

I've mentioned this UA/US fare disparity in a number of threads. Sometimes you can work the multi-city link on US Web site to get the same UA fare on US metal. But overall, it just pays to go straight to UAL site and compare. It is amazing, out of 5 recent ITN's UA had better pricing on 4 of them. All four were UA booking on US metal.

Go figure...and we wonder what is wrong with this industry.

There are very different mindsets at these two companies. I have noticed, if you scope Orbitz, for example, looking for a last minute, one way, transcon, UA often has an unbelievably low fare, frequently les than an ATA, or similar discounter. They seem to manage for cash versus US, which is continually trying to drive up average yields.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NeoOfTheCRS:
I think we need some sort of comparison chart, UA vs. US. I think this would help wake people up. To include: use it or lose it, IFE Comparison, Premium F Class i.e glasses and real cutlery, Stand-by fees etc.

UA has a far superior product with more flexibility than US right now and that saddens me because it was always the reverse. </font>

This would be interesting, but just to be clear, my flight booking is for the same physical plane at the same time, just a codeshare booking number, not the same route on different airlines.

Still, a comparison chart among all the airlines would be nice (kind of like the BlondBomber's *A charts). Does anyone already keep one posted, or should I look into putting one together?

I think it would be a great thing to put together and would help on it. It would be great if we could style it so that the media would find it a useful tool. A little bad press for US could go miles in making their restrictions comparable to the rest of the industry. And at the end of the day--it would make them more profitable so they stop driving away revenue from folks like CluebyFour, Pineybob and myself.

P.S. Paging media maven Pineybob!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by StSebastian:
This would be interesting, but just to be clear, my flight booking is for the same physical plane at the same time, just a codeshare booking number, not the same route on different airlines.

Still, a comparison chart among all the airlines would be nice (kind of like the BlondBomber's *A charts). Does anyone already keep one posted, or should I look into putting one together?</font>



[This message has been edited by NeoOfTheCRS (edited 09-04-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NeoOfTheCRS:
...It would be great if we could style it so that the media would find it a useful tool. ...</font>

As to the use-it-or-lose-it policies, it's already been done: http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/markets/ericgillin/10110314.html

(note that US hasn't changed its stand nonetheless).

I created one US vs UA. I think it has a very powerful impact.

StSebastian--I am happy to send it to you but do not have your e-mail. I can't host it, but if anyone wants to that would be awesome.


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by StSebastian:
This would be interesting, but just to be clear, my flight booking is for the same physical plane at the same time, just a codeshare booking number, not the same route on different airlines.

Still, a comparison chart among all the airlines would be nice (kind of like the BlondBomber's *A charts). Does anyone already keep one posted, or should I look into putting one together?</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NeoOfTheCRS:
I created one US vs UA. I think it has a very powerful impact. </font>

This is now available for viewing on the us-cockroach site, at the bottom of the media page.

Thanks Ira!!


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by irabk:
This is now available for viewing on the us-cockroach site, at the bottom of the media page.

</font>

shouldn't Neo's chart somehow note that the 'first class premium meals' are 1/2 portions of the coach meals?