zrs70

There is no scientific study that I have undertaken…

But simply by observation, I conclude that silver members often have the highest expectations. Perhaps it's because they are first-time elites, and can come off as more demanding than more seasoned travelers.

Anyone else care to chime in?

transportprof

Can you define highest maintenance?

Ringing F/A call button?
Stealing Polaris bedding?
Posting snarky comments on Twitter, or even FT?
????

JBord

I've been all 4 statuses (not GS) on UA over the years. In all fairness, I was only Silver for about a month before I hit Gold (or rather Premier Exec).

I wouldn't say Silvers are the highest maintenance, and I wouldn't presume to generalize at all, there are self-important, selfish people everywhere.

That said, my unscientific observation is that I see more complaints regarding more trivial things from 1K's. I've never seen a Silver write paragraphs complaining how a FA took meal orders in the wrong order, or how they don't know if they could possibly go on with life if they were in BG2.

My definition of high maintenance is whining and complaining about the smallest things, which often times really don't even matter...OH NO, BG1 line is so long...I still get to put my bag right above my seat but I had to rush that glass of wine before push back in 2A.

Lubey

I know a GS who was being called the wrong name during a TATL flight in J (flight attendants sheet must have been messed up), and he didn't say anything. I also know a silver who expects every little thing to be right, and complains when it isn't.

I think it depends more on the person, not so much the status

aCavalierInCoach

Also gets to transportprof's question on maintenance. Who is more trouble: the silver who complains/writes in when they don't get an upgrade or an E+ seat on every trip, or the GS who books and redeposits 100 mileage trips a year, slapping upgrades on many of them in the process (and requiring many many long, if friendly, phone calls)?

rittenhousesq

Silvers are not necessarily first time elites. People do sometimes drop a status level if their flying patterns have changed!!
I agree it depends on the person, not the status level.

zrs70

Before electronic check in, I used to stand in the regular line (as opposed to elite or F line). Why? People in the elite/ F line took longer because they usually had more issues. They wanted upgrades. The regular line was more straight forward.

A flight attendant once said "F passenger expect the world and perceive they nothing. Y pax expect nothing and perceive they get the world."

findark

Reminds me of a story.. not on UA but I was checking in once at the F counter. There was one person in front of me and perhaps 7-8 pax in line for the Y counter. This pax had a cat in a carryon bag, and spent forever arguing about who-knows-what, including that they had closed the security line closest to her gate and what a shame it was. The cat would chime in with a meow from time to time, and it was about 10 minutes before I was served. I would have checked in much faster from the Y line

narvik

Which elite level tends to be the highest maintenance, you ask?

The flight attendants.
(super-intemerate-elite-level)

worldwidedreamer

Honestly----the more people care about their status, the less it probably means.

PaulInTheSky

Some silvers could be very demanding, but so are all other members in different levels.

However, 'expect ever little thing to be right' depends. If you are talking about the services that UA provides:

Hard product: Seat, IFE, lavatory
Soft product: Food, drinks, snacks, etc.

Functionality, availability, and even OTP matter, because that's what you pay for, and that's what the airline guarantees to deliver.

If you are talking about:
1. Always have to be first choice of meal order.
2. Call-FA button more than three times a flight.
3. luggage space.
4. Food portion...

Then these are examples of high maintenance.

The bottom-line: The company is here for business. As customers, we have at least a certain level of expectation. It's perfectly reasonable to receive the product/service as it describes on UA.com. Anything that does not meet the requirements/advertisement is worth a message to UA Customer Care for explanation. I believe my tolerance level is pretty reasonable, but we know UA is not tolerating when our name isn't correct when making the reservation, CC info isn't right, date picked for travel wasn't right.

Karl-MDW

I don't think it all revolves around elite level. Personality and manners have a lot to do with how people handle themselves.

TonyBurr

I have heard from more than one FA (esp on international flights) that 1K's are the worst. They can be very demanding.

emcampbe

Very true. I was a silver for multiple years before flying enough to earn gold (and don't think I am very high-maintenance, for the record, and don't think that's changed at all over the years I've been silver, gold and plat).

JVPhoto

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