Originally Posted by
Live4Upgrade
I think it is fantastic that UA is decreasing the benefits of Silver. It makes is much easier to snag E+ as a 1K booking tickets <1 week out. Now, if they would make Premier Access line only for Gold and higher.....
If they want to see the remaining Silvers bolt for elsewhere, they will do something like that.
The E+ benefit going from selection at booking to selection at checkin was a drastic devaluation and more importantly a terrible bait and switch to do so late in the year. The to offer Silvers the "discount" of $75 which brings annual E+ down to the price it used to be anyway? They said last fall that they may discount it--turns out the discount they just announced takes it to the price they were charging last fall! Call that a discount? (And dropping to one 50-lb bag, leading US to do the same? Why bother doing that? That gives the impression, possibly true, that they are just trying to tell Silvers to buzz off.)
They could have done something like capacity-control the E+ at booking for Silvers so with early enough booking or a light load it might be possible to get a seat, otherwise wait for check-in. How about maybe saving some rows of E- for Silvers then? As it is, a Silver booking close-in may hit the situation of empty E+ that they can't reserve and a full E- section. Guess what the best option is then? Not booking UA and hoping to snag E+ (as you don't know how many others will be also doing so)...best option is going to someone else!
It's only fair to allow a 1K paying through the nose last-minute a chance at E+, but the shaft of E+ and baggage benefits being slashed for Silvers was and is too much.
As far as eliminating Premier Access for Silvers, if you as a 1K are in Zone 1 boarding, with Silvers boarding several zones later, what's it to you if they have Premier Access anyway?
