Originally Posted by
knope2001
--Regarding the 1k desk working with award inventory, do you know what the mile cost is like, Blue? There are "last seat available" awards for elites only for 50k domestic and 60k international on Frontier, so I'm not sure if that's similar or not.
UA has two "prices" for award tickets - "Saver" and "Standard". Standard has much better seating availability, albiet at a greater cost of miles.
Also, the cost for award tickets differs for Y, C, and F (Economy, Business, First), and also for international and domestic. Availability for each of these groups is handled separately (I think - there's voodo at work there).
As if that wasn't enough, elites can get access to "extra" seats available in the various fare buckets, which is really the point of your question. I believe that there are folks on the UA board who work on figuring out the algorithms behind all this, however I personally haven't gone there.
Generally speaking, I've been able to get a ticket whenever I took a personal trip. Sometimes I had to go for the "standard" award ticket, sometimes not.
Originally Posted by
knope2001
--Regarding the help durring irregular ops, I'm curious to know how they do this. Is there a structural means that makes this happen, like a separate line? Are agents instructed to rebook 1k first and have more leeway in what they can do? This one is interesting to me because I'm not sure how best to implement this, so knowing what your experience with UA is will help. At least in my mind a benefit like this should have some structure so it's not just the whim of the agent who is helping you.
I think that the answer is "structural". Elites are sometimes automatically rebooked during IRROPS. I've found that much of the time that I get better rebooking when I call.
The various elite levels each have their own (800) number. Supposedly this gets them to the front of the line ahead of general members and such. What I've noticed is that I get native english speakers on the elite lines and someone in the India call center if I don't identify myself to the machine that answers. I'm not good at understanding foreign accents, so I consider this a perk.
UA also has the notion of "protection". If a flight might be cancelled or sufficiently delayed, 1Ks who know the drill can call and be put on a semi-confirmed seat on another flight "just in case". I have found this more useful when a B777 is at risk, and much less so for a CRJ.
Originally Posted by
knope2001
A larger question I have is does it make sense to have an airline like Frontier match line-by-line high tier FF perks of the big airlines. Of course one school of thought is that the answer has to be yes as much as possible to be competitive. But maybe the different nature of their traffic base and route network mean mimicing the programs of the big airlines isn't especially effective.
I'm going to dodge part of your question here and focus on the selfish aspects of things - let's face it - we all do, and so do the airlines.
I'm more interested in a loyalty program (and hence the airline running it) that rewards me for my travel patterns. I spend a lot of time in airports. Probably more than I do in planes, and I want to be able to minimize that pain. UA was a reasonable fit for me until now since I will fall out of the 1K group, and half of my flights are on a very 1K-heavy route. In other words, I suspect that I would have *much* greater difficulty during IRROPS once I fall from grace (or 1K). It's not necessarily easy now.
I'm less concerned about international flights or airline partners. I know that they've got their advantages, but for me it's not an issue.
I will miss the wider seats in F, but I really won't miss the free meals or the free drinks there. I sleep or I'm hacking away on my laptop. Sometimes I'll eat the food, but it really doesn't compare to my smoked roasts
All this to say, I like what I see with F9, and I'll probably have about the same benes that I would have had at UA in a year, and by all accounts with staff that seems consistently concerned with making people happy.
I like happy people, especially when I'm one of 'em.
Finally, UA is worried about the bottom line. So is F9, but I can't help but think that F9 has firmly in mind that happy customers generate more business, whereas I think UA approaches it from a more revenue-centric perspective. I'll stop there. I neither want to generate flames or bring them to bear on myself.
-btr