US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Do Silvers get Trans-Atlantic UG certs in 04?

Anyone know? If so- when?

THanks,

HW

I don't think anyone knows for certain. I can tell you that when my wife made silver quite late in 2003, she received them in her welcome packet. They will mail the packets for those who requalified in Feb.

nope. Transatlantic certs will be for CP only in 04.
sorry.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sfeinberg:
nope. Transatlantic certs will be for CP only in 04.
sorry. </font>

How do you know? Please elaborate.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sfeinberg:
nope. Transatlantic certs will be for CP only in 04.
sorry. </font>

I am gold, and received mine two weeks ago

A very friendly CP rep looked up the packages for me and said chairmens will be the only ones getting them. They will be companion upgrades as normal, but gold and silver will not get them. (she had an online file on it)

Pretty much all gold and silver will get this year is a card. We had a little chuckle about it, but really it's pretty pathetic.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by catwood:
A very friendly CP rep looked up the packages for me and said chairmens will be the only ones getting them. They will be companion upgrades as normal, but gold and silver will not get them. (she had an online file on it)

Pretty much all gold and silver will get this year is a card. We had a little chuckle about it, but really it's pretty pathetic.</font>


Well, I'm gold, and I got mine. Don't know if it's different since I just qualified for gold and got the packet about a month ago.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kreeft:

Well, I'm gold, and I got mine. Don't know if it's different since I just qualified for gold and got the packet about a month ago.</font>

Just to clarify, I was only referencing the packages that will go out on 3/1/04.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by catwood:
A very friendly CP rep looked up the packages for me and said chairmens will be the only ones getting them. They will be companion upgrades as normal, but gold and silver will not get them. (she had an online file on it)

Pretty much all gold and silver will get this year is a card. We had a little chuckle about it, but really it's pretty pathetic.</font>

That just margnalizes any advantage us had over other carriers at the gold/siver level.
-howie

I was afraid something like this will happen. With the generous changes for domestic upgrades something has got to give. Eliminating the transatlantic upgrades for Silvers and Golds, US has lost its slight advantage and I'll be flying more on NW/CO metal beginning this year.

Made Silver 12/3/03 and received my SP kit a week ago. Included was 2 DMUTA3's.

-JC

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by catwood:
Pretty much all gold and silver will get this year is a card. We had a little chuckle about it, but really it's pretty pathetic.</font>

Can I assume you are talking about the Gold and Silver qualification renewals and NOT the people that initially qualified having had no status last year?

If that is the case, and this indeed has changed, is now a good time for me to transition to UA, or should I wait until later in the year to try to COMP my membership?
--Alex

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ayb1:
Can I assume you are talking about the Gold and Silver qualification renewals and NOT the people that initially qualified having had no status last year?

If that is the case, and this indeed has changed, is now a good time for me to transition to UA, or should I wait until later in the year to try to COMP my membership?
--Alex

</font>


Yes. I.e. A Gold preferred flyer this past year flew 50k and will stay gold or CP who will drop to gold (she was specific on that one) will get no transatlantic upgrades when their new packages go out.

She didnt say about newly qualified, just the renewals, it's a big change.

Well this news bites. Here's to hoping that those of us who didn't requalify for CP get a chance at a challenge then. Or we have to get used to burning miles for the upgrade now.

If we kill catwood the messenger, will things go back to the way they were? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

(kidding of course...) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My decision to move to UA is getting easier all the time. I had planned to throw enough business to US to reach Silver this year, strictly because they give the upgrades, but now that's not a priority. Lacking the upgrades, I'll just burn some of my miles. Another wise move by the geniuses who "manage" US.

I hate to say this but I posted something was up along these lines in September. After a phone call to DM, I was told they didn't know what the final decision would be.

Sorry for the SP/GP's as this is not the correct way to have done this in that they spent the past year trying to qualify for this benefit. It should have been announced that this benefit wouold not be apart of the package in 2005.

BBB strikes again!

I don't see how US really benefits from this, apart from making people use miles to upgrade to Envoy rather than for other awards. I'd figure that fewer people will be upgrading now, which means that people won't be buying upgradeable tickets (which have cost me $50- $150 more than regular tickets in the past). I'll probably just start taking United internationally more often thanks to Economy Plus. I'm not paying $5000+ for an Envoy ticket- at most, I'd get a cheap Envoy ticket through a consolidator (even then, it's probably more than I'm willing to spend).

[This message has been edited by NYCommuter (edited Jan 15, 2004).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NYCommuter:
I don't see how US really benefits from this...

&lt;snip&gt;

I'll probably just start taking United internationally more often thanks to Economy Plus. </font>

Bingo! Fly UA and get Eco Plus seating in advance and don't worry about it.

I don't see this helping US. If they think that many of the Silvers and Golds who used Envoy upgrades in 2003 would have purchased a full-fare Y or C class had they not possessed upgrade certs they are kidding themselves.

The more I think about this the more steamed I am about the lack of notice. I had already decided that I'd start off the year posting my travel to UA (most of my travel is on codeshares) and then switch to US after I'd gotten to 50,000 on UA. With the BofA miles, I would then need only 15,000 US miles to retain Silver. If, on the other hand, I chose to start off posting to US, I'd be 2+ months into the year before learning that they key benefit I was trying to retain had disappeared. I don't suppose that BBB plans to field calls at the SP and GP lines when the masses get their packages in March.

P.S. UA came through with my comp to 1P today. Good timing.

It is really a bummer for a lot of folks, because of people like me and my wife. We had been flying Delta, until they annoyed us. We switched back to USAir after a year of no status and I worked back through silver and gold, so I got two different round trip transcontinental upgrades for 2004 and my wife hit silver, so she got 1 too. Yet, if this report is accurate, people who maintained gold all year will get nothing. It would be a large mistake in my opinion.

Were the T/A upgrades (and the previous SWU's) a published benefit or unpublished benefit?

Although it sucks, US can always stop unpublished benefits at their whim (such as free club memberships for certain CP's).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
Were the T/A upgrades (and the previous SWU's) a published benefit or unpublished benefit?</font>

They were never advertised on the site or anywhere. They're just a special bonus. And since they were never an advertised benefit, they can do whatever they please. Doesn't mean I like it, quite the contrary. Cheapskates.

Just keep eroding the benefits and see what happens. If they continue like that, I will watch them die with great satisfaction. Suckers.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1005:
Bingo! Fly UA and get Eco Plus seating in advance and don't worry about it.
</font>

You must be joking! Are you suggesting that UA E+ is better than US Envoy?

Certainly Envoy is far better than E+. But if I don't have enough miles to upgrade to Envoy on US, I'd certainly go E+ on United rather than flying in coach on US.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by lt1GM:
They were never advertised on the site or anywhere. They're just a special bonus. And since they were never an advertised benefit, they can do whatever they please. Doesn't mean I like it, quite the contrary. Cheapskates. </font>

The original SWU's were listed on the website as a benefit for Silvers, Golds, and CPs. That changed a couple of years ago when they became an unpublished bonus perk.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cedric:
You must be joking! Are you suggesting that UA E+ is better than US Envoy?</font>

Not at all. However, I'll fly UA in Eco+ before I'll shell out 60k roundtrip to upgrade a US Airways discount coach fare to Envoy.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
Although it sucks, US can always stop unpublished benefits at their whim (such as free club memberships for certain CP's).</font>

If true it absolutely sucks and US's customers can choose another airline at their whim. Bad timing, dropping to GP this year. No TAU's, no US.

I think BBB was just trying to save the paper cost of printing these Trans UG's. It would be along the lines of how he thinks.

Don't forget the added postage. Come to think of it, this might save US!

I believe US and all the airlines can change published and unpublished benefits, so I don't see that distinction. I mean they could announce as of 6/1/2004 that the only benefit of CP/GP/SP will be the bonus miles, and no upgrades would be available at all. Believe me I am as disappointed as anyone about this, just don't see the distinction about published vs. unpublished benefits since they can and do change both kinds of benefits at their whim. Also someone may want to start another thread on this with even a link to this one, because I only vaguely came across this information.

I wonder whether Europe-based Silvers and Golds will also lose the DMUTAs in 2004. If so, I think that would be an even worse devaluation for them. Anyone know?

This is lousy because I would have gotten 100k flown miles on UA if I had credited my 29k status miles on US to UA. That would have given me 2 more UA SWUs.

The problem all year was getting miles on UA while upgrading on US. Instead I acquiesced and got 1K with the promotion. I thought it was ok to get the 2 US SWUs for destinations like Ireland or FCO where UA doesn't fly........