Shannon - Thank you for communicating the news, however awful it actually is. There have been whole threads on this forum dedicated to understanding how the allocation of fare buckets affects the availability of CPUs (obviously a concern for an elite traveler, and especially for lower level elites that want upgrades on popular routes). It is unfortunate that just when we are finally understanding the relationship (however ambiguous it still remains), the feature is being discontinued.

I will not speak for everyone, but personally, I use this information in planning which flights to take, when and to where. It affects in what city I might connect in, which flights to avoid if I need to make sure to get from point A to point B without hassle, and other concerns. Ultimately, if this removal just leads to less transparency than we already have, I am extremely disappointed and I think this is a tragic error. If it is removed and replaced with a better system (heaven forbid) that provides elite travelers with better clarity with respect to the information they are looking for (for me, upgrade availability), then I'm certainly in support. Based on recent history, I lean towards pessimism but I look forward to seeing if and how United doesn't turn this into a colossal error.

Somebody else made the astute claim that this is just a way to obscure CPU availability and make the purchase of TOD upgrades by elite and non-elite travelers much more popular. If that is the case, obviously, you should expect a huge backlash from the elite flyer community.

Best of luck with what will most likely be a cascading wave of irritation.