AMA "Closing Keynote: Transforming the MileagePlus Program at United Airlines"
Feb 11, 2013, 2:15 pm
#62
Join Date: May 2006
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I have no illusions that AA EXP status - and all that it entails - hasn't been a brief shining moment. I can't see how AA can stay this far out in front of UA under bankruptcy pressure, the way AA and UA have always watched and reacted to each other. But for this brief shining moment, I am glad to pay for JetBlue's and AA's products, earn AA miles, and use my miles to fly free on AA as an EXP. Moreover, on discovering B6's product (34", 30 channels including live news, plush leather seat, unlimited snacks if I want them) I find I don't need all the uncertain UA status and frills anymore.
Feb 11, 2013, 3:11 pm
#63
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: COS
Posts: 253
Wirelessly posted (BB Curve: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.16)
Funny, AA just sent out an exhaustive survey regarding their AAdvantage program. Something I have never seen UA do for their elites (minus the Chase credit card survey). UA claims to have insight but does not even send out a comparable survey.
Funny, AA just sent out an exhaustive survey regarding their AAdvantage program. Something I have never seen UA do for their elites (minus the Chase credit card survey). UA claims to have insight but does not even send out a comparable survey.
1. you can survey all you like, but it doesn't mean it's going to be meaningful. if you survey people about how often they'll use a new gym that's going to open near them, they'll tell you that they will use it a lot more than they actually will.
2. With that much data, they can gain insight by correlation of policy and price changes to actual bookings received. All companies can do that, even those with few customers, few products, and few transactions. You can bet your shirt on the fact that an airline can do it.
If I were United, I'd do doing data analytics more than surveys.
Feb 11, 2013, 4:17 pm
#64
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: LAX
Programs: UA Silver, AA, WN, DL
Posts: 4,091
Two thoughts:
1. you can survey all you like, but it doesn't mean it's going to be meaningful. if you survey people about how often they'll use a new gym that's going to open near them, they'll tell you that they will use it a lot more than they actually will.
2. With that much data, they can gain insight by correlation of policy and price changes to actual bookings received. All companies can do that, even those with few customers, few products, and few transactions. You can bet your shirt on the fact that an airline can do it.
If I were United, I'd do doing data analytics more than surveys.
1. you can survey all you like, but it doesn't mean it's going to be meaningful. if you survey people about how often they'll use a new gym that's going to open near them, they'll tell you that they will use it a lot more than they actually will.
2. With that much data, they can gain insight by correlation of policy and price changes to actual bookings received. All companies can do that, even those with few customers, few products, and few transactions. You can bet your shirt on the fact that an airline can do it.
If I were United, I'd do doing data analytics more than surveys.
To your second point, yes, absolutely any company worth their salt is going to data mine their records. Plenty of case studies, articles, and papers on that. Having done some projects related to consumer behavior, it has been an enlightning look at how organizations can benefit. But again, surveys do offer insight that data analytics doesn't.
Using a two prong approach will provide a better picture as well as give the appearance the company is interested in hearing from the customer; an intangible that does have positive benefits (as noted by my perception of UA).
Feb 11, 2013, 4:30 pm
#65
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: if it's Thursday, this must be Belgium
Programs: UA 1K MM
Posts: 6,484
If you think that you're going to get a response on the survey, you don't understand the different kinds of surveys.
UA's surveys are "tracking surveys" that keep an eye out for anything going really wrong, statistically, and are not designed for detailed feedback to each individual flight crew for example. Versus hotel surveys where the manager is getting them back in his/her inbox directly and has the time/visibility into why a customer did/did not enjoy the experience.
UA's surveys are "tracking surveys" that keep an eye out for anything going really wrong, statistically, and are not designed for detailed feedback to each individual flight crew for example. Versus hotel surveys where the manager is getting them back in his/her inbox directly and has the time/visibility into why a customer did/did not enjoy the experience.
Feb 11, 2013, 4:55 pm
#66
Join Date: Apr 2003
Programs: UA *G 1MM LT United Club & Global Entry
Posts: 2,756
Fundamentally, I wonder whether the metrics the "revenue enhancement" operation are being judged by internally are at odds with the metrics of total revenue generation long term, since the "extra revenue" celebration from a few "upsells" can be seen immediately but the hangover from losing your best customers can take a year to show up as companies review their contracts, and individuals evaluate where they are going to spend their money in the coming year.
SunLover
Feb 11, 2013, 6:50 pm
#67
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Feb 11, 2013, 6:53 pm
#68
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But instead of shirking from the challenge United decided to take the data initiative even further by launching a completely revamped MileagePlus program that has given them an unprecedented understanding of its customers that has helped drive revenue and change the customer experience."
Different animal. AA will be essentially America West Airlines management, no? If you think CO was the podunk player in a huge merger, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Feb 11, 2013 at 7:01 pm Reason: merge
Feb 11, 2013, 10:02 pm
#70
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Pikes Peak COS
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If you think that you're going to get a response on the survey, you don't understand the different kinds of surveys.
UA's surveys are "tracking surveys" that keep an eye out for anything going really wrong, statistically, and are not designed for detailed feedback to each individual flight crew for example. Versus hotel surveys where the manager is getting them back in his/her inbox directly and has the time/visibility into why a customer did/did not enjoy the experience.
UA's surveys are "tracking surveys" that keep an eye out for anything going really wrong, statistically, and are not designed for detailed feedback to each individual flight crew for example. Versus hotel surveys where the manager is getting them back in his/her inbox directly and has the time/visibility into why a customer did/did not enjoy the experience.
Also wonder why I get responses from hotel corporate, followed by hotel management.
Guess I really don't understand how things work. Thanks for enlightening me.
Feb 12, 2013, 12:49 am
#71
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: London; Bangkok; Las Vegas
Programs: AA Exec Plat; UA MM Gold; Marriott Lifetime Titanium; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 8,745
As people from the old CO board can attest, I'm far from a UA/CO apologist. I like to think I'm objective but as far as I'm concerned:
- I've yet to miss a GPU, including EWR-TLV 2x
- I've been able to redeem Saver Class BF rewards 2x
- I haven't had a single IRROP that lasted more than 1 hour
- EWR is my home base and it's neither good nor bad (ie, same as it ever was)
- My biggest frustration has been over pilot's not turning on Ch9 out of spite
- I'm generally pleased with the service I receive on the phone as a 1K
- AA DEFINITELY treats their EXP's better than CO's treat 1K's. In my short time as an EXP I was blown away
- Was not at all impressed with AA's hard C/F hard prodict
- Was blown away on my most recent DL flight by how far they've come. Probably better than UA, at least until wi-fi is installed fleet-wide
I flew 125K+ miles in 2012, mostly on M-class or higher. Conclusion: UA is extraordinarily mediocre. Good enough for me as long as I sit up front >80% of the time and I can redeem my GPU's & miles.
- I've yet to miss a GPU, including EWR-TLV 2x
- I've been able to redeem Saver Class BF rewards 2x
- I haven't had a single IRROP that lasted more than 1 hour
- EWR is my home base and it's neither good nor bad (ie, same as it ever was)
- My biggest frustration has been over pilot's not turning on Ch9 out of spite
- I'm generally pleased with the service I receive on the phone as a 1K
- AA DEFINITELY treats their EXP's better than CO's treat 1K's. In my short time as an EXP I was blown away
- Was not at all impressed with AA's hard C/F hard prodict
- Was blown away on my most recent DL flight by how far they've come. Probably better than UA, at least until wi-fi is installed fleet-wide
I flew 125K+ miles in 2012, mostly on M-class or higher. Conclusion: UA is extraordinarily mediocre. Good enough for me as long as I sit up front >80% of the time and I can redeem my GPU's & miles.
I had never missed an international upgrade either until last fall. EWR-LHR on a B fare. A B fare! I really enjoyed my flight in Y.
Since then, I saw UA continue to deteriorate. I grew disgusted with UA's attitude toward its "elites" (could someone please explain to me who is not elite with CO . . . I mean UA?).
I no longer fly UA except for very limited circumstances.
I'm happy your experiences are better than mine.
Feb 12, 2013, 10:56 am
#72
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You'd think when they see folks that were 1K for over a decade solid stop buying tickets they'd ask in some way.
Michelle should not need the The Marketing Course to tell her that. @:-)
.
Feb 12, 2013, 10:58 am
#73
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,645
They've got all these analytics and they've got a team being paid to use them, and yet, it seems none of us with long time spend history who have dropped to zero or dropped significantly have had any contact from UA whatsoever.
Anyone have an idea why?
By the way, yesterday, I got a huge packet from UA, in a padded black envelope. I was surprised and thought to myself ... humm, what are they up to? It seemed like something big.
So, I opened it. Turns out it was a catalog of hotels that I can stay at where I can use my mileage plus red carpet club card to get free breakfast.
Wow. This is where they are putting resources?
Last edited by FlyWorld; Feb 12, 2013 at 11:04 am
Feb 12, 2013, 11:01 am
#74
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: COS
Posts: 253
thing is, here: everyone thinks that the airlines are desperate for their revenue. they're not. airlines are desperate for profit. given the airline's wafer-thin margins, for every healthy margin-contributing passenger, there are a number who are hurting the firm.
90% of people polled say they're a better driver than average. but that's mathematically impossible.
Feb 12, 2013, 11:03 am
#75
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So, honestly, why is it?
They've got all these analytics and they've got a team being paid to use them, and yet, it seems none of us with long time spend history who have dropped to zero or dropped significantly have had any contact from UA whatsoever.
Anyone have an idea why?
They've got all these analytics and they've got a team being paid to use them, and yet, it seems none of us with long time spend history who have dropped to zero or dropped significantly have had any contact from UA whatsoever.
Anyone have an idea why?
Some overpaid Execs decided it was a great idea.
Smisek's cowboys deliberately decided to alienate a large chunk of their most profitable Elite Base for reasons unknown, and are hardly going to come back and ask "how is that working out for you folks?"
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