anishub

After reading a lot of speculative treads about the new United and it's changes and/or no changes to existing policies, I may want the following from both (UA/CO) programs to be made permanent in the New United FF program.

1) Awards
a) 2 stop-overs in a round-trip award - like in CO
b) One-way award from all carriers (*A/non *A) - partly like UA
c) Change awards after the first flight - like CO
d) No fee, for changes in awards for top tier elites - like in UA
e) Mix Awards (*A/non-*A Carriers) in one award - like in CO

2) Mileage earning
a) Keep the min mile at 500 mile (may be 600 like BD ^)

3) Same-day-confirmed flight
a) No fee for all elites (1P/2P/1K) somewhat like CO

I can only think this much, may the wise ones will come with more benefitting features ^

travelingman79

Not FF related, but one huge request I have: please make the mobile web site like CO's, so we can see seat map, upgrade, and standby lists on mobile devices up until flight time.

DMPHL

I imagine that will be the case, as CO is the one who is actually taking over.

channa

Not sure where you got this stuff, but that is not correct.

CO allows only one stopover on a RT award. The difference is that CO allows a stopover and an open jaw, whereas UA allows either/or.



Same here. CO only waives this for Plats, nobody else. The difference is that CO's window is much wider than UA's.

anishub

[QUOTE=channa;14942460]Not sure where you got this stuff, but that is not correct.

CO allows only one stopover on a RT award. The difference is that CO allows a stopover and an open jaw, whereas UA allows either/or.


May be I made a mistake, but IIRC, last time when I booked an award US-INDIA, I was offered a stop-over both ways, or may be if I am mistaken, I wish it is 2 stops ^

channa

Anything under 24 hours is not considered a stop. Any chance one of your stops was < 24 hours?

goplaces

*G at 1 million miles (like UA).

Coming from someone who could cross that mark late next year, I feel like *S just isn't worth enough to consolidate trips on an airline in transition.

anishub

Nope. It was a STOP-OVER x2 ( >24hrs), a real one, but, I may be wrong. (Or could it be a OPEN-JAW and a STOP-OVER?) And also. there was no problem crossing both oceans (TATL & TPAC) on a single award (at CO). That was the first and only time I made an award reservation, and I was impressed already

J.Edward

Here's what I'd like to see:

channa

Same here, but a lot of people like the companion benefit as well. I don't see any reason they can't offer a choice that can be changed for each program year. Default it to one or the other, and allow members to pick which one they want.

sbm12

They've mostly fixed the 2 ocean loophole. I've tried a few times lately and been unsuccessful. Still, the CO rules on award tickets are MUCH more friendly than the UA rules with the exception of one-way on UA metal. I'd happily give that up (mostly since I've never really had it ) to keep the other rules that CO has.

Without knowing the exact routing you booked I cannot say for sure whether you got 2 stopovers or just the normal stopover/open-jaw but I'm guessing the latter.
So you'd tier it as a choice between Status A or Status A-1 plus companion? So as a 1MM I could be 1P/Gold or 2P/Silver + Companion and then at 2MM I could be 1K/Platinum/Whatever they keep or 1P/Gold + Companion?

I like the idea and think it would certainly be customer friendly but I also wonder a bit about the logistics of it and making it work. Seems like more work than I'd want to do if I were the company.

drewguy

Probably not relevant to most folks here, but CO's miles never expire policy.*


*Yes, I know the provision says they can cancel accounts with no activity, but I haven't seen any reports of people losing miles as a result of this.

channa

That's the idea. I don't think it'd be too difficult on them if there were a web profile setting. CO already has a change companion process (I think you can change it once a year), and UA already has the Elite Choice infrastructure where we have choices of various benefits at different thresholds. One of those benefits is status nominations at various levels, so that infrastructure is already in place.

And with all this marketing about "Opt"-ing for things and customizing one's travel experience, this would just be another thing to add.

The upside, which is significant IMO, is that it addresses the discrepancy between MM benefits of legacy CO and UA MMers. They need to do something because someone with 1P/*G may not to be happy going down to 2P/*S, and someone with Silver + Companion may not be happy if that means losing that companion.

They can position it all they want, but a choice is the best way to appease both sets. In fact, some may be active Elites and would prefer something totally different for the year (e.g., fee waived club, or fee waived credit card, or some extra SWUs or CR1s, who knows).

hans

Can you say a little more? I thought UAL Mileage Plus senior leadership would be in the lead on the new combined FF program.

tlawrence85

I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but *S at 1MM on CO is because CO counts all *A activity towards your 1MM, but on UA you actually have to fly UA metal.