You know ANA tool is designed for ANA members, not for UA members. Hence sometime if you see availability on ANA tool but not bookable with UA miles, on the other hand it is available with NH miles. AMC and MP are totally separate programs. So why would UA block award availability for NH members ? Not unless UA announce they are going to abandon Star Alliance.
Yes, I know.
But I have a feeling that more UA MP members use the ANA tool to look up award availability, than NH members do.
I have a feeling that UA management knows this too.
Again, I am not saying to block UA award availability for NH members, but to restrict people (UA MP members) from openly seeing it.
LX award availability doesn't show up on the ANA tool. This doesn't mean that NH members can't book LX awards or that LX is leaving *A. It just means that NH members can't book LX awards online, and more importantly, the rest of us can't see LX award availability online either.
Think about it. It will be so much easier for UA agents to lie to us, if we have no ANA tool reference to back up our claims of award blocking.
YesLX award availability doesn't show up on the ANA tool. This doesn't mean that NH members can't book LX awards or that LX is leaving *A. It just means that NH members can't book LX awards online, and more importantly, the rest of us can't see LX award availability online either.
But we can see LX on expertflyer, so I don't think it is a case of LX being difficult.
My EF subscription is up in Feb and I have to say it's unlikely to get renewed as this was about the only feature I used.
I suspect that what UA want is for us to book online and then take the upgrade gamble, with us knowing that there are no upgrades for months across the atlantic.
UA could easily have made the information about upgrade space available on its own web site years ago, but has chosen not to do this but allow us to take the upgrade gamble.
I think your hypothesis makes sense. Years ago, Air Canada's upgrade inventory was in fact the C booking class because its full fare booking class for Business is J. The C booking class inventory showed up on a variety of online engines because C class was also used a discounted business class for sales. Effectively, the visibility of the upgradeable inventory was open for the whole world to see. So to address that, AC created a new booking class, I class, which effectively became the de facto upgrade class but for which most online engines won't show.
For a set of unknown reasons, some airline managements don't want people to see their upgradeable/award inventory easily. But then, those airlines tend to run into financial difficulty as well. I guess there is not necessarily a connection between the two but it does gives some hints about the competence of their respective management seeing they don't seem to know what's their priority.
LX award availability doesn't show up on the ANA tool. This doesn't mean that NH members can't book LX awards or that LX is leaving *A. It just means that NH members can't book LX awards online, and more importantly, the rest of us can't see LX award availability online either.
Think about it. It will be so much easier for UA agents to lie to us, if we have no ANA tool reference to back up our claims of award blocking.
LX isn't being difficult, it's a matter of difference in technology and system. Most likely, the LX system is outdated like Air China and a few other new members of *A. For UA to block its award availability on ANA tool, it probably means UA need to either downgrade or upgrade its own system since ANA will most definitely not pay for such change. In other words, UA must overhaul its own system to make it invisible on ANA and that means $$$. Even then, it will only accomplish half of what it intented to do. *A partner award availability such as LH will continue to be visible on ANA Tool and UA MP members are going to be mad when they see LH F available on ANA tool but UA keeps saying no and blame it on the partner airline.
I never said they were. That's my point. By not offering online LX award availability, ANA members can:
1. Continue to purchase revenue LX tickets online through the ANA website.
2. Continue to book LX awards through ANA, albeit not online.
This really does not deny anyone revenue, unless you consider the cost ANA pays to LX for their award bookings.
uh...no, it does have an impact, most definitely. But the airlines in question probably figure the cost outweights the benefits. LX and NH aren't exactly major partners to each other so most probably the cost of system overhaul isn't worth the value it provides.
EF has an interest to scavenge for information because providing this service is part of their core business where they make $$$. Seeing how EF can do this easily, to show LX inventory; it is highly probable ANA chose not to show it after making a conscious cost-benefit decision.
I think we all do, but I'm not giving my money to EF after my membership expires. It doesn't matter who the bad guys are if I don't get the service I need for the money.
I am now trying to figure out the least painful way to get from RDU to HKG if I leave UA. Paying for transpac C is not an option at my pay scale.
The only mention of the change there is in this thread. Nothing on the front page (where they announce changes/features) and nothing in their blog either.
The only mention of the change there is in this thread. Nothing on the front page (where they announce changes/features) and nothing in their blog either.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Markie
....
I suspect that what UA want is for us to book online and then take the upgrade gamble, with us knowing that there are no upgrades for months across the atlantic....
(Bolding mine)
I presume you don't mean that literally. There certainly ARE upgrades across the Atlantic! I imagine you are indulging in a bit of hyperbole.
Or do you mean "no upgrades immediately available" across the Atlantic (and IM opening up the upgrade inventory closer to the flight date)? Even that isn't always literally true. Also, a lot of the upgrade tight-fistedness (and delay in opening up inventory) must have to do with the new aircraft config vs. old config. (But I realize there's a whole other lengthy thread on the upgrade availability issue, so never mind....)
I guess there is not necessarily a connection between the two but it does gives some hints about the competence of their respective management seeing they don't seem to know what's their priority.
