RTWSTARALLIANCE

I had to complete a report for AAs ExtrAA program obtain past corporate credit. The amount of money that went to AA was significant. It without doubt had at least one cent of impact on UA and to any business person that it too much given how many time over it will occur. Hope this ushers in a new more friendly climate with UA. So much has been lost on both sides. The past year of non love served no purpose. We do know things are done differently in Chicago than Texas. You would have thought those Chicago guys could hold their own.

My GS friends GPUs have not been extended. He has no RPUs left.

My expiring 2012 GPUs have also not been extended. My RPUs earned this year have. My expiring 2012 RPUs have not. They will expire at the end of this month.

mcgahat

Ouch. I definitely did read it wrong.......I noticed that I have two of my four RPU's expiring in January 2014 and the other two still expire in November 2012 and my wife had two of her six expiring in 2014 and the other four expiring at the end of this month. I would hope the GPU's we have in our accounts now would be extended to January 31st 2013. Hopefully they are rolling through the changes and we just need to be patient.

golfingboy

Great news UA! ^

I purposefully waited until November to reach 100K for this very reason when I blew past 100K in April last year.

hobo13

So this pretty much negates my carefully plotted strategy of not crossing 1K until December 30th, eh? I was really shooting for them to be deposited in Jan, and thus valid for the elite year anyway....

channa

In addition to the "Houston cowboys" post above, it's probably only about now where they're able to validate the pattern with real data. Specifically, folks making ~90K around mid-year, walking away cold turkey, just to come back briefly now in November, or begin booking now for December.

If that type of customer is significant enough, they can easily project the revenue lost during the gap.

The downside with all of this is that they may use this as a reason for their poor financial performance. While this was likely a contributor, there are still several fundamental issues that need to be addressed.

FlyWorld

No credible analyst would believe that this is sufficient explanation for their poor performance. But, I agree with you, this scenario is something that can be easily measured with data. They could have saved so much time and energy and money by just reading FT. ;-)

as219

While this is welcome news, and I can see how it benefits UA, it's frankly not that big of a deal for UA's customers.

In the first place, recall that RPUs were already effectively cut from 8 to 4, then doled out way late in the year at 75K and 100K EQM. Extending thir validity is better than not, but it's a relatively minor give-back relative to what was taken. Those who have use for RPUs surely burn them within a year; those who do not have use for them, well, they have no use for them.

The GPU extension is certainly better news - particularly for those who normally buy upgradeable and/or CD fares. But don't kid yourselves: This "enhancement" isn't going to change UA's release of upgrade space one iota. GPUs aren't becoming any more "valuable", rather the opposite; it simply puts more instruments out there chasing fewer and fewer premium seats. From where I sit, all UA has done is find a cheap way to snooker more people into buying W fares. It's the cheapest possible thing they can do for elites at this point.

I can understand why some people, based on their particular travel patterns, will find this to be excellent news, I simply don't see this as anything but a minor blip of a give-back. UA still doesn't/won't/can't admit it has seriously bungled its relationship with many of its (former) top customers.

BearX220

Don't exhale yet. It's Friday. They could quietly announce this afternoon that the RPU earning rate has been enhanced to 2 X every 500,000 miles. Sorry to be cynical, but literally no development in 2012 has been to the customer's advantage. Why start now?

I already did, flew a bunch of DL/AS in the second half and will end 2012 as Plat, and don't think this change (if it sticks and no other shoe drops) is enough to make me reconsider. Too much other bad juju to cope with at UA.

mdt76

I echo the feeling about the policy application to GPUs that are based on 2011 travel, since i have 6 unused (thank you lack of R space).

One other change that would at least help put the program on par with AA would be to also remove the W fare minimum restriction.

FlyWorld

If anyone has experienced an extension to the expiration date of GPUs, please post here whether:

a) those were GPUs given in 2011/2012 based on travel done in 2011, or
b) those were GPUs given in 2012 after flying more than 100,000 miles in 2012

My guess is that the extension only applies to case (b).

nova08

a.)I called 2 weeks ago and had GPU's earned for 2011 travel manually extended to 12/31/2012. I doubt these will be automatically extended in the sweep and it is likely they will only be extended to 12/31 not into 2013
b.)My GPUs earned from 2012 travel were automatically extended to 1/31/2014

bseller

The GF passed 100K last weekend and the SWU's were deposited a few days later.

As of this morning their expiration had been reset to 1/31/2014.

Dave

unclpaully

First of all, a huge +1 to all the positive comments. This is great. I'd also confirm that my 2012 desposited (for crossing 100k in 2012) are already extended to 1/31/14 from a previous 6/30/13 so I'm pretty excited

bolding mine

Plats earn RPUs at exactly the same rate as 1Ks - 2 at 75k and 2 per 25k miles over 75k.

hans

Exactly!

RTWSTARALLIANCE

Sad financial performance has a direct bearing on shareowners. Jeff knows that is the wrong set of people to you know what. WHAT would it have "cost" UA to blanket extend the 2012 expiring instruments into 2013 or January 2014. NOTHING. Because they still as has been written control upgrade inventory space. Lots of positive but the salt lingers.

Shannon. Thank you for the love. It is appreciated.