US continues to dilute the FF program. I am platinum with 80,000 miles so far this year............no MC.......all in the air. Upgrades and preferred seating are the two most important factors in my choice of FF programs. WIth the behaviour of US lately, it is becoming more and more difficult to get good seating.
I donīt have a problem with the upgrade system. It seems to work fine. US is holding more and more seats for a longer and longer time for revenue, but they need to make money. They perhaps could start mentioning in their promotional material that their upgrade windows only occur sometimes and in fact less and less all the time.
The problem that I am finding is in the preferred seating when I donīt get an upgrade. I used to almost always get an exit row. I fly a lot of 321s and getting seats 9DE and 10ABC is certainly a perk. I donīt mind not getting upgraded if I can land these seats. The problem is that the competition for these seats has gone crazy. Every person who flies on US can now qualify for silver just by buying a ticket. That makes the preferred seating almost a `non perk`. Now I have been told by UA 1ks that they are booking US online, taking regular seats and then phoning the reservation line, telling the agent that they are *G and getting exit rows. So now as someone with 80,000 miles in the air, I am in competition for an exit row with anyone on the plane who can pass the exit row exam. This is a no cost issue for US. It doesnīt matter to them who flies in the exit row. Costs are identical. It does however give them a chance to reward people on the plane who do a lot of business with them. If I donīt get an exit row, there are fewer other preferred seats because of the choice seat vs preferred seat dilution that took place earlier this year.
If the airline is going to give away silver status to everyone who can breathe, perhaps they should limit the benefits. For example, for freebie silvers, they could go on line and get a preferred seat 24 or 48 hours before flight time. This could be the same for *G, and then we could expect the same treatment from UA and CO and our other cousins. ha ha. If this is not compatible to US software, then the freebie silvers could be given priority at check in.
The bottom line is that dilution is taking place. There has been little thought to some of the recent decisions, and a little more analysis might be in order for future decisions that affect customers who really do FLY a lot of miles with US airways.