FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - United CFO Rainey Implies Certain Elites were "Over Entitled".
Old May 19, 2012, 11:17 am
  #24  
demkr
 
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UA was "over entitled" to the 2K I was about to spend for a flight to London in Y.

Originally Posted by TWA Fan 1
I know many of your are incensed, and perhaps legitimately so.

Then again, I believe this was an honest statement of the business model at CO, namely that high-end frequent flyers are not worth the company's energy if they are buying a lot of cheap seats and require a costly and unwieldy infrastructure to manage them.

Why would UaCo be excited about a 1K who achieves his status on the least expensive fares and then expects constant perks such as free upgrades, a dedicated CS line, and semi-official exemptions from fees and rules?

UaCo would just as soon fill those same seats with equally cheap kettles who expect nothing in return and might even occasionally spend some hard cash (even if only ToD's) to sit in FC. If a kettle needs to change a ticket, or do SDC, he or she is paying for it at full dollar value. If they want to sit in E+, they're paying for it, etc.

I'm not saying the CO approach is right, but that's their business model.
So what is exactly the point of having an elite program then? What's the incentive to fly 100K miles?

Last edited by iluv2fly; May 19, 2012 at 4:01 pm Reason: merge/edit
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