agarc

I loved United Airlines.

(The intent of this post is simply to share my love/thoughts/frustration/experiences with United, Mileage Plus, Global Services, and the merger experience)

The memorabilia I have still makes me smile (a large United logo from the old DTW airport, and an awesome red carpet sent by the amazing agents at United Global Services). The tulip logos, my first boarding pass with a large "GS" printed, a stack of Premier cards; my first black card; photos of FAs, p.s. row 9...
My first flight with a MP number was in July 2009. Starting with no status at all, I could only imagine what it was like to have elite status on an airline. With a trip to Asia, Premier; end of 2009, Premier Executive. I perused the threads on FT, and dreamt of attaining 1K status, which seemed out of reach at the time. Q4 2010, I finally made 1K. I made regular work/personal trips on p.s. JFK-SFO; met the awesome flight crews, made several FA friends along the way.

In 2011, my wildest frequent flier dream came true: an invitation to Global Services! I was so excited. And it was wonderful. Travel was truly a pleasure, even in bad weather situations. I became a United evangelist; got my coworkers to join/fly more. Totally hooked and stoked.

Then in early March, everything went sour.

(again, this is my personal experience with United as a GS member)
* Upgrades suddenly became challenging/frustrating/impossible.
* The GS phone line was useless for two weeks.
* GAs seemed bewildered and out of control.
* Customer service lines (at the airport) were jammed with angry customers.
* It seems like most UA employees were extremely frustrated with the system transition and the aftermath.
* GS agents, who have always been wonderful, seem less informed and I get the sense they have less power to make changes.
* the 24-hour window where upgrade instruments cannot be applied. AWFUL.
* watching other customers who are angry/frustrated/upset at the gate.
* having a confirmed seat disappear ("Passenger Not Found" error when I boarded p.s. SFO-JFK)
* getting on the upgrade waitlist.
* staying on the upgrade waitlist.
* having to think about the upgrade waitlist at all (it's been good being a GS out of LGA/JFK)
* sponsored upgrades - it's great that my colleagues get my status on the upgrade waitlist (finally), but they NEVER clear. It really seems like United is taking cash instead of upgrading people on the waitlist. I watch them sit at #1 on the waitlist...days go by, seats get filled, never upgraded. What's the point? (I know UA is making money, but when upgrades never clear, it's a worthless perk)
* the gradual decline of the United Club - they've gotten more crowded, and they took my celery and carrots away.
* reading what others have experienced on this board - I know I'm not the only one who is frustrated.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting the system transition to be that smooth. But I also wasn't expecting my GS status to mean practically nothing during the merger shenanigans. United (Continental, yep, I said it) miserably failed to convince me that my business is in fact appreciated under the new regime. Repeating "your business is appreciated" over and over again while on hold is insufficient. And when ground agents are too busy/frustrated/bewildered to answer a question or help in some way, I don't blame them, I blame their management.

So I've decided to move on, for now. I feel like the United I knew and loved died in early March (thinking of it that way also makes it easier for me to deal with the fact that I'm letting my GS status go to waste). I'll really miss the friendly agents and flight attendants I've met - they've made my travel with United a pleasure. My partner (letting his 1P status go to waste) also enjoyed flying United...the upgrades, rule breaking, bottles of wine, galley gossip; it was fun. YMMV.

I'll keep an eye on the UA forum. I don't post very often, but I love reading all of the great tips/advice and snarky comments. For all of you who are toughing it out (or enjoying the new airline), there's one more upgradable seat available on some NYC flights. Happy travels!

hobo13

Truly unbelievable that COdbaUA could not recognize the importance of their GS pax.

LAX

I thought GSs are exactly the type that Smisek & Co covets, why in world would they alienate this group of pax?? This is bad news for UA if they continue to lose GS in droves.

LAX

Plane-is-home

On the flights where I have a choice of airlines I said good bye a few weeks ago. It will mean losing GS, but so what. I haven't heard back from GS on an email sent 2.5 weeks ago.

kenn0223

I'm with Agarc. I have one more trip to GUM for next week. Booked on a full Y fare and none of the overwater segments have cleared. Being in BOS I have lots of choices (including 787 service to NRT) and as much as it pains me to leave the wonderful memories I too am out of here after next week.

I loved GS and UA for making travel as easy as can be. Now that it's hard, and I believe harder than on other airlines, there is no reason for me to choose UA over others. In fact, at this point I will choose others simply to avoid the chaos at UA.

The front line staff are overwhelmed, clueless, and cranky. Just last week, I mentioned to a former CO FA that I was disappointed that, as a GS, I did not get my first (and vegetarian) meal choice to which she replied that she had never heard of Global Services. She informed me that all those old United programs ended a month ago. Well…I guess I should have gone with all those old United ways instead of waiting it out for 6 weeks.

tom911

What carrier are you moving to? Care to share who, and how you came about the choice of new carrier?

kale73

Bye bye

TravellingMan

Reminds me of my experience in SFO yesterday. There were PMUA agents with PMCO agents behind the scene. When I wanted to standby for the flight, the PMUA wanted to really do something for an 1K; the PMCO agents in the background just shrugged their shoulders and asked them to ignore my request. Reminds me of why I did not fly CO for many many years - now I am back to them via COdbaUA.

johnru36

I have a business associate who I "converted" to United last year - primarily on the strength on my 1K experiences. He's a premium fare flyer so from the start he was seeking GS.

He acheived it before the year ended - and had a about 5 months worth of GS experiences similar to yours. And since March - also experiences like yours

He's switching back to AA domestic, using BA for LHR, etc etc.

GS was just the level of service that lured his business originally. With the service gone - so is most of his business.

demkr

I don't blame you - There's no doubt about it, the CO people have shown little regard for rewarding loyalty. It's one thing to throw us lowly 1K's under the bus, but GS, a status thats attained by high revenue..to treat them the way they are, is a bewildering business decision.

If I could make AA work, I'd be back there in a heartbeat. sigh.

LilAbner

Everything that the OP mentions as a reason for bailing are definitely true and are huge problems, even though some posters on here would differ with his complaints, and probably put the onus on him.

However, if I were a GS I'd give it more than 6 weeks & 3 days before I'd throw in the towel.

Having the top level renamed The Rodney Dangerfield Gang, after all the spend it takes to achieve that level is just amassing!

pdx1M

I'm on the edge of forgetting GS after having held it since the beginning of the program. I am very close to 3MM so I'll make sure I get to lifetime 1K for whatever that is worth. I have been willing to put up with conversion pains but UA really doesn't seem to care what the GS get or think and that, if true, is unforgivable. Were I leading UA (something that from what I see SMI/J does in name only) I would have communicated much more intensely with the GS folks - or communicated at all. Folk forgive problems that are being fixed - they don't forgive being ignored and marginalized. Were I in UA marketing I'd have send out a biweekly short GS update letter - anything to show some sense that the company realized that their best customers were suffering and that the company regretted this and was working to fix it. (By the way I would have done the same thing for at least the 1K and perhaps Plats.) This would have taken very little effort but could have really paid dividends in perceptions. UA should have viewed this entire changeover with a "crisis management" or "crisis communications" mentality from the start rather than simply denying the crisis. You can never overcommunicate but it is trivial to undercommunicate. I have had the privilege of watching up close some of the best executives in the technology world - folks who would normally have been labeled geeks turned execs - and I watched them get this stuff right internally and externally multiple times. Unfortuntately it doesn't appear that the current UA management understands the differences between "management" and "leadership" and why both are critical to success.

JRose

After two terrible experiences for me, including a downgrade from a FF first class fare to a middle seat in the last row of economy, I have decided to take a break as of the end of March after logging over 40k FF miles in International Business Class fares. I am hopeful United will get its act together in the next couple of months and if they do, I'll be back. For now, I'm done with the noise. Probably switching to Delta for now but Diamond is a far cry from what GS used to be.

hellmutt

I'm 1K, not GS, but still 'kinda' important I should think.

I had a really upsetting customer service call today - one that I can't imagine having had last year or the year before.

Trying to resolve an issue with the double-EQM SFO-ORD promo last winter, I had a leg that still didn't post. Got on to explain to the agent what the issue was, and she starts arguing with me about whether or not the flight qualified.

Regardless of whether I was right (which I know I was), it was so unprofessional the way she was arguing with me. She got me ramped up then transferred me to a a supervisor. The supervisor says he'll manually make the posting for me, then AFTER that starts arguing with me about it again! I asked him "If you're going to satisfy me, then why would you start arguing with me about something you've agreed to do? You took me from satisfied back to unsatisfied by doing that." He didn't seem to care, but just kept arguing with me.

Quality has gone SOOOO FAR downhill. Sigh.

cosflyer

Agarc,
go ahead and head over to DL or AA and see what status match will get you, a co-worker status matched over to DL, he is now feeling the pain of trying to UG on those TATL segments that force him to buy up to a Y,B,M to get the coveted seat that so many feel we need, DL is has to be laughing all the way to the bank, and those that say AA is a option?.....the summer of 2000 that some of us endured at UA will be a walk in the park compared to what Horton and his minions announced after what the unions and parker have in mind. there is no good option right now and im just gonna give it more time like LILAbner put it and split my flying between UA,EK and LH