zrs70

A decade ago, people would come to FT to share useful info, mileage earning tips, etc. Sure, there were complaints. There was the summer from hell, Dulles "T" gate gripes, and so on. But by and large, members of FT posted to help other understand the ins and outs of the system.

So often, I see now posters who write things like:

"Like most here, I don't like United...."
"MP sucks, but it is the only choice I have..."
"They screwed me, I'll screw them...."

I know I've barked up this tree before. Is there any hope to resurrect some of the bygone wisdom? Or am I just an alter kakker?

lilpisher

When people ask me which airline I fly, I tell them United but that I suffer from Battered Wife syndrome..

mherdeg

The relationship has gradually shifted away from "loyalty" (MileagePlus wants you to keep flying UA and will treat you nicely and give you occasional perks to make you happy).

Now it's "transactional" (MileagePlus wants to reward you in small, discrete amounts each time you pay them money, with benefits commensurate with the amount you just paid them).

I think the writing was on the wall when they got rid of the "Elite Choice" promotion (which offered unnecessarily nice perks to people who stretched and flew UA a little more vs. the competition) circa 2009.

The relationship is not friendly — MileagePlus is not going to make sacrifices for me to be happy. If I were in jail at 3am and could call one person to come bail me out, it wouldn't be MileagePlus. If MileagePlus suffered a tragic accident and left my life, I wouldn't ever name my kids after them. (That being said, people are naming kids "Ted". Hmmmm!)

As this relationship has changed, a side effect is that the mileage program no longer "has your back" — it's not like they are giving out nice things and the best way for altruistic travelers to help each other is to exchange tips about how to get the most nice things.

Instead, it often seems like they are taking away nice things and the best way for altruistic travelers to help each other is to exchange tips about how to protect yourself against problems.

The tone of experienced travelers can sometimes seem frustrated ("I regret to have to tell you that the best way to protect yourself and get a good outcome is to do the following things… this works around problems with UA systems that they aren't willing to fix.") But it's a mistake to read this as an increase in "whininess" in the forums. Instead, what's going on here is that people are just as willing to help as they always were, but the kind of help that is needed is more often than not "help me avoid or fix this problem" rather than "help me find fun new ways to spend more money on this airline".

The relationship shift is a bummer because practically all the people — flight crew, gate agents, reservation agents — that I interact with are friendly and always want to help travelers have a good experience. They haven't always been given the tools or the job role to make that happen, and, yes, there has been a shift in their priorities. In this system, the best we can do, as travelers or watchers, is help other people have a good time.

Asiatraveler15

Wow.

I don't think about it as ally or enemy.

That is way to personal and serious I think and sounds crazy.

UA is not some terrorist organization.

If someone does take all of this that seriously, I think they need to question their thinking.

It is business. 99% of it there is no control over. Things change for better or worse.
If one does not like it, cut the ties and move one.
It is your choice.

johnden

Most of the time United is my ally, getting me to where I need to go with a lot better perks/benefits than if I flew on another airline where I have no status.

Occasionally United adds rules/procedures that make my life difficult or complex for no obvious tangible reason. Sometimes they tolerate employees who are simply not interested in customer service (at least based on the standards in other industries).

All in, it's kind of like an amusement park run by an OCD manager that hands you a 10 page long term sheet when you arrive describing how to access the overly complex rides, then expects you to mingle with the confused staff and customers as you collectively try to figure it all out. There should be a module in business school about over-optimization and the effects of complexity on quality control.

porciuscato

Actually it isn't. Thanks to legislators and regulators asleep at the switch, many of us don't have a choice. Maybe if we raise awareness about just how crappy service is compared to what it could be, people will prod their legislators to do something and make the industry competitive. Imagine if we could do for airlines what Uber has done in the taxi industry....

UAL is an institution that systematically puts fraudulent charges on people's credit cards and spends millions of dollars trying to suppress real competition in the airline industry. That hurts every one of us. So do you think that makes it an ally or an enemy?


Stealing from people is very personal indeed.

Baze

What, have surge pricing? Have some rouge pilots take people on wild goose chases then charge them $12,000? Take the passengers to the wrong airport? No thanks. Yes, this is in jest yet culled from recent news articles.

kettle1

The "new" UA is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

I live in LAS and HNL and have choices. I am not locked in a hub. I still fly UA, but I am treated MUCH better on DL. DL seems to care.

JBord

+1

UA provides a service. Maybe part of the problem here is that some people think of a transportation company as an ally and then are disappointed when they're merely transported?

I get that people aren't happy with the changes. I'm not either. No one likes to have stuff taken away from them. But if you feel UA is your enemy, I would suggest it's an enemy that you're provoking. Leave it alone, and it will leave you alone. I promise it won't hunt you down and delay your AA flights.

bob_the_d

the airlines aren't my friend or foe. they're my transportation carriers. and UA just happens to fit my schedule most of the time.

mahasamatman

Exactly. Just because SCOTUS believes that corporations are people doesn't mean I do.

You always have a choice. Nobody is forced to fly.

Singapore_Schwing

Lol. I agree with others that it's a business and not something to take too personally (I have recommended to many others that they leave if they're not getting what they want and can elsewhere). That said, I am fond of telling people my situation with UA is the 'abusive relationship that for some reason I just can't or won't leave'.

flyingnosh

Thank you for creating this topic. Let's be clear. You're asking about FT, not about UA. The reality is that FT makes its money from clicks, and apparently the most clicks come from angry people. [Portion of post discussing moderator actions deleted by Moderator per provisions of FT Rule 18.] FT has become much less useful to me, and I'm considering "really leaving" FT. I'm putting the blame fully on FT, not on UA.

Kacee

The wisdom is still there. You just to have wade through (or ignore) some other stuff to get there.

BearX220

Two things have happened.

One, we're in an age of comparative scarcity compared to the golden era of FF programs. Scarcity suppresses generosity. 10 or 15 years ago FT was about sharing the wealth. Now it's about pushing your rival for scarce benefits out of the lifeboat.

Two, the airlines -- and United in particular -- now run a shamelessly adversarial relationship against customers. It's not just a bloodless business transaction; it's an ongoing chess game against an opponent that exploits opportunities to bleed you. People who maintained an emotional relationship with "their airline" feel spurned, even traumatized -- witness all these operatic breakup letters when people "leave."

This will not change until the next big economic downturn, and perhaps not even then if oligarchic power plus capacity restraint protect the majors from having to lighten up to fill their planes.

Absent unified customer activism, it is probably a permanently miserable situation, such as Britons had for decades with British Rail. And the fractricidal, internecine warfare evident within the FT ranks bode ill for unified customer activism.