TOD offered at ticket purchase

Old Mar 28, 2013, 4:29 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by channa
Is it really one click and it's done? If so that is shady.

I would have thought it would take you to a confirmation screen before charging, no?
I have no idea, as my orig post mentioned I have never done it since I would never pay for UA domestic F and don't travel internationally enough to know

the way that the fine print reads on the pop up window, it wouldn't surprise me (something to the effect of "your card will be charged immediately" IIRC). I am always careful about how I click. I usually just use the "X" on the corner of the box to eliminate the risk, or x out of the browser window all together.
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 4:51 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by channa
Is it really one click and it's done? If so that is shady.

I would have thought it would take you to a confirmation screen before charging, no?
Most likely not one-click - amazon has a patent on one-click purchasing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 4:59 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by aacharya
Because the OP doesn't understand that these offers are never discounted from the upfare to F pricing. (He called them TODs!) He is engaging in pure speculation that i'll get offered $99 to F on my $298 EWR-LAX flight.

Will not happen.
Maybe I have the wrong thread title, perhaps I forgot to add a question mark at the end of the title...

About the pop up window: It showed up after my visa verification. It gave a summary of what the total cost for the upgrades legs would have been, and then gave me the options to accept with same credit card used to pay, different credit card. On the right corner a YES and a No, thanks button.

Since 3/3 this is the first time I have this in 20+ international flights I have bought at UA.com
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 5:35 pm
  #19  
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TOD offered at ticket purchase

My recent offer after purchasing a $223 one way fare LAS-EWR: $945. Hardly a TOD. No thanks. But good thing F was wide open though because I snagged a sponsored RPU.
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 5:56 am
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Originally Posted by aacharya
Because the OP doesn't understand that these offers are never discounted from the upfare to F pricing. (He called them TODs!) He is engaging in pure speculation that i'll get offered $99 to F on my $298 EWR-LAX flight.

Will not happen.
I'm not sure what offers "these" are. There are plenty of data points of cash upgrades being offered on United that are not straight fare differences. The term TOD seems to offend people unnecessarily.

I don't think the OP ever knew of or speculated on any offers for upgrades on any flights other than those posted in the OP.
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 1:23 pm
  #21  
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Even if by some bizarre happenstance the popup box led to a direct charge, UA provides the full credit to original form of payment option under the DOT 24-hour rule.

I've never seen a US domestic carrier which goes to a direct charge without a last screen showing the details. Unless someone here has actual knowledge that this particular popup is different, I'd drop the outrage stuff.
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 2:47 pm
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Originally Posted by channa
Is it really one click and it's done? If so that is shady.

I would have thought it would take you to a confirmation screen before charging, no?
YEP - just one click. I made that mistake a few months ago & paid for a buy up from C - F. (NRT-SFO-JFK $3880) I was furious since I knew I'd clear with a GPU & was actually trying to click "UPGRADE W GPU" but clicked "CASH" instead. Took 2 calls to clear it up. First call I was routed to refunds (located somewhere in the Punjab) & I was told "no refunds under any circumstances". At least that's what I think he said as his English was atrocious. I called back & got a REAL PMUA HNL 1K agent who told me I never should have been routed by the other agent to refunds. She refunded it herself in 2 seconds. That was fine but what about everyone that's not a 1K or GS? It sounded to me like she was saying that's the reason she refunded it. Everyone else is SOL. UA can be down & dirty in the same league as Haliburton or Enron when it suits them

Originally Posted by Often1
Even if by some bizarre happenstance the popup box led to a direct charge, UA provides the full credit to original form of payment option under the DOT 24-hour rule.

I've never seen a US domestic carrier which goes to a direct charge without a last screen showing the details. Unless someone here has actual knowledge that this particular popup is different, I'd drop the outrage stuff.
That's inly for actual tickets. Not for extras, upgrades, luggage, etc

Last edited by iluv2fly; Mar 29, 2013 at 4:47 pm Reason: merge
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 2:50 pm
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Originally Posted by unavaca
This is not a TOD. If someone's willing to pay $4,400 for that upgrade, then by all means, UA should take it. I won't complain.
Well, actually it is... TOD=Thousands of Dollars!

To toss in my recent experience- while looking at a MLE-EWR award booking for 40K miles, I was offered an upgrade to First for a mere $21,000!

I declined.
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 2:52 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by PHL
My recent offer after purchasing a $223 one way fare LAS-EWR: $945. Hardly a TOD. No thanks. But good thing F was wide open though because I snagged a sponsored RPU.
Agreed that the idea of TODs at booking are folly - that's not the issue here.

SHARES goes pear-shaped at T-24, that's when the GMs get the magically great offers.
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Old Mar 31, 2013, 6:28 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by chinatraderjmr
YEP - just one click. ...
to quote from the screen
When you click "Upgrade now", your credit card will be charged
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Old Mar 31, 2013, 6:33 pm
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Originally Posted by lhrsfo
IME, the upgrades offered at this stage are not TOD, more like HOD (or in the case of the OP's example ThousandsOD).
I think we agreed upon KOD for this.

Well, at least I liked it.
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Old Apr 1, 2013, 3:45 am
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Booked RDU-FRA last week. P fare was $3000 (which I up-fared to later). After booking I was offered a Z fare for $4200 (declined). Had they offered me the O fare, I'd have taken it right then.

I can't buy the P when I book because I have to buy lowest cost Y first to expense that part of the ticket.
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Old Apr 1, 2013, 10:29 am
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Agreed that the idea of TODs at booking are folly - that's not the issue here.

SHARES goes pear-shaped at T-24, that's when the GMs get the magically great offers.
Magically?

Or mythically?
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Old Apr 1, 2013, 11:47 am
  #29  
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Originally Posted by LarkSFO
Magically?

Or mythically?
Nothing mythical about all the sweetheart offers that elites have posted their GM companions have received, nor all the anecdotes of perceived newbie pax in the F cabin
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Old Apr 1, 2013, 12:09 pm
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Originally Posted by channa
Is it really one click and it's done? If so that is shady.

I would have thought it would take you to a confirmation screen before charging, no?
its one click, but as MrCT said, they will refund. It happened to my wife, she called me, I called UA, cleared up in 2 seconds.

Originally Posted by Beerman92
I'm not sure what offers "these" are. There are plenty of data points of cash upgrades being offered on United that are not straight fare differences. The term TOD seems to offend people unnecessarily.

I don't think the OP ever knew of or speculated on any offers for upgrades on any flights other than those posted in the OP.
I have seen 4 different upsell points and they ought to be kept separate as I think they have a different pattern:

(1) The first (which OP got) is the difference to a A/F fare at purchase. I don't have a problem with these, and I don't think anyone on FT really does either, and UA used to do them. The fare could have been purchased 30 seconds before, and they are equally available to all. If someone for example books a coach fare and F or BF is available for a little bit more, UA ought to tell them. I think the real issue here is that SHARES sucks in not given all fare options before purchase. on DL you get the F and the Y fare displayed next to each other, other airlines show the F price on a matrix (AS, VX, WN). UA is just behind on its web site in how it does the offer of FC and in only given one option on the price for a flight.

(2) second are e-mails which are set out, and I think are triggered when R or (after the clearence window for R has opened) P or A is over a certain point. These offers appear to be less than the buy ups at initial purchase when ever I have bothered to track them. Usually they are not a great deal though, I have never gotten one that is a true TOD. Has anyone else? I can't recall any reports of them being TODs.

(3) third are the buy ups at check in. At 24 hours they are not so great, sometimes lower than the e-mail offers, sometimes in a similar price range. I have only seem a few that were really TODs ("tens of dollars")

(4) finally are buy up offers that are made either right before departure (if you check in several hours before the flight) or when printing out a ticket at the kiosk. What I think happens is that UA cuts the prices for all tickets, offering discount A and then also lowering Coach prices, right before the flight. This lowers up-sell spreads and gives out TODs.

The only thing I don't know (but there are reports of) is if non-elites get lower prices or more offers. I have personally gotten several clear TOD offers right before flights (either checking in at the kiosk right before the flight or printing a boarding pass) - where I took the time and it was clearly less than the spread to a M fare (with P available) as it is supposed to be - but don't have any data on a non-elite getting the upsell when I did not as an elite.
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