Given that I do software quality assurance testing for a living, I'm sympathetic to the programmers and testers that have to maintain such a complex inventory management system. That said, what I've witnessed over the last week makes me think what we're seeing is being caused by one of two likely scenarios:

Scenario one:

1. On (or around) 7/31 a massive amount of C class award and upgrade inventory was released, likely accidentally as the result of a major system logic flaw or defect. (We know this happened.)

2. Because of #1, a massive amount of waitlists and upgrades cleared, which caught the attention of some folks at UA. (Seems to be logical given #1.)

3. As a result of #2, all of the C class award and upgrade inventory was pulled until they can sort out what the problem is. (If you believe #2, then this shouldn't be a stretch.)

Once it's all figured out, I think you'll see award bookings return.

Scenario 2:

Because of their horrid quarter they are eliminating large amounts of upgrade and award inventory. While it's true that some F and Y availability seems to still exist, just eyeballing it seems as if this has been reduced as well.

There are other scenarios of course but these two will generate the most comments. Hence the reason I picked them

- T

[This message has been edited by TonySCV (edited 08-03-2003).]