Shannon,

As director of customer insights - please ensure the "insight" around how important 1K voice is to us is communicated up the chain. 1K voice has always been quick to reply and has almost always fixed my problems over the years. It was like a trusty assistant, just forward your concern and a day later they are solved.

This provided a great benefit to both your customers and to UA - it allowed us to get our issues addressed without holding up your 1K desk phone agents - and it allowed UA to spread out the work over a 24 hr period.

Please tell me this has not gone away! I want to think that everyone at the new UA is truly pro customer - but I can't being to explain the level of frustration we are now starting to experience. It is almost an anger...an anger that comes to light because we actually care about your company, the brand, and the ultimate success.

We are all willing to take one for the team and go along with solutions that may provide better long term upside to United. For the life of us though we can't figure out how alienating your two top tiers of customers is going to achieve this end? As I mentioned earlier, UA rarely wins on product. It does win with the strong relationships we have been able to build on the ground and up in the air. I fly UA out of a great sense of loyalty, because I like seeing familiar faces like Dawn Marie and Annie, and because they always took extra care with 1K/GS to ensure we got where we needed to go in comfort.

If these elements start to erode, why would I not just purchase a more advanced product with highly consistent service delivery from an airline that answers everyone's calls quickly? Virgin Australia has done a tremendous job of attracting Aussie top flyers, and literally the UA team is the ONLY reason I stay loyal. As Annie puts it - "if you don't fly UA, you don't get me." That being said, I can fly Virgin and still see Annie in the NZ lounge .... so maybe that is where my spend will head next.

Finally, I think a huge thank you is in order for the entire FT community. We have provided United with invaluable insight into their business transition and have been one of the best test centers UA could have ever asked for. All we ask in return is for a clear outline of what is broken, what is being fixed, and what is working as designed...even if it is a change we DON'T like!

Oh...and please ask Jeff to respond to emails (even if it is a support team). It is not a good look when a 1K emails the CEO and you get nothing in return...I must say I always get responses across the board and Jeff use to be great at responding a few months back...not sure what has happened.