United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - Literally the first correspondence from united since I took my 160 legs with me

So, I am (was) a multi-year 1k on both segments and miles. I left united in march and haven't looked back. Today, I received a piece of mail from United, figuring it was a targeted offer to "get me back.". I opened the letter...solicitation for the new mileage explorer card...all so I can experience bonus miles and earlier boarding. Except that I am still a 1k...

I didn't think united could get lower with customer communications. In my opinion, they just did...

This is the first Explorer card offer you have gotten? I get five a week. You must be way more off the grid than I am.

Management has said they can't focus on (read: be bothered with) individual customers. Apparently, they are too busy trying to run the entire airline into the ground wholesale. Their most recent financials demonstrate the results. Patience may prevail however; I'm beginning to think the Houston crew in the c-suite may not last too long.

Management has said they can't focus on (read: be bothered with) individual customers. Apparently, they are too busy trying to run the entire airline into the ground wholesale. Their most recent financials demonstrate the results. Patience may prevail however; I'm beginning to think the Houston crew in the c-suite may not last too long.

^ Wise words.

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but i believe the correspondence the OP is referring to is from Chase, not UA.

One would think that it wouldn't take much for United to send an email encouraging more flying if there was a noticeable drop in flying patterns.

AC used to send "encouragements" when you were part way through the year and getting close to the next top tier level. Cheesy but it sort of worked.

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but i believe the correspondence the OP is referring to is from Chase, not UA.

Correct, Chase simply sends these offers to UA MP members, so this was not at all from UA

Management has said they can't focus on (read: be bothered with) individual customers. Apparently, they are too busy trying to run the entire airline into the ground wholesale. Their most recent financials demonstrate the results. Patience may prevail however; I'm beginning to think the Houston crew in the c-suite may not last too long.

Many of UA's valuable customers (ie: presumably GSs) have already ran out of patience and left. Lasting this far is already too long & it may be too late by the time actual actions are taken.

LAX

If they look at EQMs rather than miles on UA metal, the general picture may look rosier than it is. I haven't set foot on a UA flight since March, and yet I will easily requalify as 1K thanks to travel with *A partners. I suspect I'm not the only one who is currently only flying with them just enough to use up my GPUs.

Management has said they can't focus on (read: be bothered with) individual customers. Apparently, they are too busy trying to run the entire airline into the ground wholesale. Their most recent financials demonstrate the results. Patience may prevail however; I'm beginning to think the Houston crew in the c-suite may not last too long.

+1

If they look at EQMs rather than miles on UA metal, the general picture may look rosier than it is. I haven't set foot on a UA flight since March, and yet I will easily requalify as 1K thanks to travel with *A partners. I suspect I'm not the only one in only flying with them just enough to use up my GPUs.

I got to 150K miles with UA last year but most of them were on AC from IAH to PVG. AC has great business seat "pods", great service (they offer you snacks/light meals all flight long as opposed to US FAs that close up shop betwen meals) and I much prefer YYZ over EWR. Lots of miles with UA but lots of $ to AC. I am happy and UA doesn't know or care.

I got to 150K miles with UA last year but most of them were on AC from IAH to PVG. AC has great business seat "pods", great service (they offer you snacks/light meals all flight long as opposed to US FAs that close up shop betwen meals) and I much prefer YYZ over EWR. Lots of miles with UA but lots of $ to AC. I am happy and UA doesn't know or care.

Same here - more than 50% of mileage on AC, LH and LX. I took my first TATL with UA ever last month - and now I know why it was the first ever.

Their most recent financials demonstrate the results.

didn't UA turn a 339,000,000 profit this past Q?

One would think that it wouldn't take much for United to send an email encouraging more flying if there was a noticeable drop in flying patterns.

AC used to send "encouragements" when you were part way through the year and getting close to the next top tier level. Cheesy but it sort of worked.
Cheesy, but it shows they're actually paying attention to their frequent customers.

How hard is it for UA to put some analytics into place, and send an automated message at certain thresholds? It's obvious that they're analyzing the best methods for squeezing more money out of us. There has to be some usable customer information sitting in a data warehouse that could be used to show a little encouragement and appreciation.

This is the first Explorer card offer you have gotten? I get five a week. You must be way more off the grid than I am.

Yeah, I get multiple Explorer and Club card solicitations, despite being a 1K and having a paid UC membership.

Correct, Chase simply sends these offers to UA MP members, so this was not at all from UA

Presumably, UA provides Chase with the list of MP members and their addresses, so UA could certainly filter the list they provide to Chase.

Presumably, UA provides Chase with the list of MP members and their addresses, so UA could certainly filter the list they provide to Chase.

I don't see why not. They're certainly filtering out non-US resident members (unlike the 1k agents, who really should know better).

I will be flying my last UA flight next week. I am intentionally stopping at ~99,000 miles just to see what they do. I may fly 1 more time in Dec just to get 1K in case things do get better.

I status matched over to AA and will fly them even though I have to connect. I have not had one flight arrive on-time in a full month and more than 75% of the time the delays have been over 1 hour. I have only had only 2 flights arrive on-time since 3/3, and have only received 1 upgrade since 3/3.

I even had an MX cancellation and was re-booked the next day and lost money I spent on a hotel room. When I wrote UA about it, the response was full of typos and said that safety is their number one priority and they are sorry they didn't live up to my expectations. The old UA would have given me a certificate to make up for the cost of the hotel that I was out. What pushed me over the edge was when I was on a paid P fare ticket, and due to an error by an agent flew in 35B (e- middle) and when I called for a refund was told I was re-booked in Y class which costs more than P class and that they will do me a favor by not asking me to pay the difference.

I will be flying my last UA flight next week. I am intentionally stopping at ~99,000 miles just to see what they do. I may fly 1 more time in Dec just to get 1K in case things do get better.

Fully agree with you, and coasting (instead of sprinting as in previous years) to 1K. I do think it's worth getting the 100K push if only for the add'l upgrade instruments that could have value in CC, for friends/relatives/co-workers, etc.

I don't see why not. They're certainly filtering out non-US resident members (unlike the 1k agents, who really should know better).

I noticed a moment ago that .bomb is not even smart enough to see my status or class of service: they gave me an ad promoting the Explorer card for a particular itin, saying it could save me $25 on the first bag and $35 on the second.

This, mind you, for a 1K (3 free bags) and a flight booked in first class no less.

I will be flying my last UA flight next week. I am intentionally stopping at ~99,000 miles just to see what they do. I may fly 1 more time in Dec just to get 1K in case things do get better.


Fully agree with you, and coasting (instead of sprinting as in previous years) to 1K. I do think it's worth getting the 100K push if only for the add'l upgrade instruments that could have value in CC, for friends/relatives/co-workers, etc.

Agreed, but also good for emanon to wait until December to requalify for 1K, as that extends the life of the SWUs. If s/he were to requalify now, the SWUs would expire next August.

I think the OPs point pretty much says it all. If I were a multi-year 1K who'd completely left UA behind in March, I'd expect a personal phone call from some senior VP by now. Not surprisingly, that hasn't happened.