MilesBuzz! - United/Lufthansa did not want me to pay

Some airlines are struggling for survival, as everyone knows, so I was astounded to learn that United and its Star Alliance partners actually discourage revenue in some situations.

When I tried to book a United/Lufthansa upgradable fare from North America to Moscow and back, I was told by a helpful reservatiionist it would take both an undisclosed fare plus 100,000 miles to achieve an upgrade to Business on a paid fare BUT if I merely claimed an award I could get Business Class for 80,000 miles with no fare at all!! (In both cases taxes, fees etc. apply.)

I wanted to buy for a ticket to get some seat miles for elite status but only an imbecile could go for the present equation.

If I was only going to western Europe and not beyond, thereby not needing extra flights, the paid ticket plus upgrade-with-miles cost would have been the upgradable fare cost plus 60,000 miles. I probably would have taken that not incredible deal and the airlines would have gotten revenue. Instead I booked the "free award" and they get none. Go figure!

Anyone know of other examples like the one above?

Seems a review of policies might be in order here.... but maybe United is too busy trying to concoct their long awaited re-organization plan for the Bankruptcy Court. To succeed they need fresh out-of-the-box thinking.

That's one way to look at it, I guess.

Another angle might be that UAL is reasonably convinced that they will survive their bankruptcy proceedings and return to profitability.

If that's a valid assumption, one could then piece together this anecdote, along with some other recent news/stories we've heard (improvements to FF program, the 1k gent who was pro-actively rewarded with SWUs for his inconvenience on the runway during maintenance, etc.) to presume that UAL is more concerned about its long-term survival than its short-term, and to that end, is placing customer service/satisfaction above short-term revenue.

Perhaps we should be thinking of United as the Nordy's of the sky?

:-)

now that is customer service...it should leave a warm feeling in your heart for the airline.terrific!

Actually as you guys so ably wrote, I DID receive excellent customer service from the reservation agent (bless her.) But having experienced many incidents of poor customer service by airlines (including United) I doubt this particular policy was designed for customer kindness but rather the result of Byzantine rate, award rules and operating pacts. Why otherwise would an airline have a policy to discourage receipt of fares by making the fare plus miles combo less appealing than the miles only award?

To characterize UAL or any airline as a "Nordstroms of the Sky" is a stretch for me. Wish it were true. It was true decades ago. The winners in the current economic struggle might very well be those who bring customer service back to remarkably high levels of satisfaction.

Thanks for your feedback.

Hey, once in a while you get a really good agent who makes value-added suggestions that he/she thinks the customer might want, not just the short-term best option for the airline.

I got one of these when I called US Airways about five years ago, and I have encountered three such people at AA (although two of them were at a CTO that no longer exists, so they may no longer be with AA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif ).

Truly friendly and helpful customer service is rare these days (and that is consistent across industries - not just airlines), so be thankful when you get it!

On the rare occassion that I get this type of good customer service I always remember the business it came from. And I always try to go back to them. Imagine if you had booked it the way you had suggested then found out you could have had it for 20,000 miles less and no money! I think it is someone who knows the rules and looks out for the customer. Good job, wish there were more of them.

Look at it this way I became a 1K at United simply because of many experiences just like you describe.
They used to place the same concern for mileage award redemption as revenue.
Starwood is a great example of how one fuels the fire for the other.
Today while much good remains at United award availability has gotten way tougher
I now share my revenue with a variety of carriers.Should that change one day I will go back to United in a heartbeat.

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AA & Starwood,Marriott Platinum
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Swissotel Club Gold
U/A 1k

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
Truly friendly and helpful customer service is rare these days (and that is consistent across industries - not just airlines), so be thankful when you get it!</font>

AMEN.

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