Originally Posted by
cova
The loss of expert mode really does not upset me - as pointed out - you can still check the upgrade box to view upgrade availability, then repeat sequentially adding one more passenger to get the number in R. Just more time consuming to do.
The big deal with this is that for waitlisted upgrades, that means doing award searches repeatedly and frequently to see if they should clear. Often, I have dates I can travel and no flights have R at booking on those dates--so I waitlist with an instrument. And several times this year, I've had the flights not clear in a timely manner one R inventory did appear (from several hours to over 24 hours later) and have had to call--without the ability to use ExpertFlyer or similar alert services, that means I get to go back to running lots of searches myself. I suppose I could stand up my own scraper which does award searches repeatedly and sends me (and only me) alerts since it would sign into .bomb with my MP #...
Originally Posted by
cova
For changing flights - after you check in - go back in to reservation and see what options it presents when you check the button for change flight. There is no commitment to change - just looking. And this is dynamic - so you need to check throughout the day.
Although true, there was value in seeing this inventory prior to the SDC period to see if it was worth bothering trying.
Originally Posted by
mherdeg
Hm, in addition to making self-service investigation of irrops reprotection options more difficult, this change also makes it harder to find same-day confirmed change options that are legal but are not shown on united.com. Total bummer.
I used such investigations several times this year during what seem to be irrops every time I fly. Much easier to call in and say, "Can you switch me to these two flights, which will preserve my upgrade as they have 'R' space?" than have the agent have to search through a bunch of different flights--and in irrops, of course those agents are very busy themselves!
Originally Posted by
mherdeg
If the goal of this change was to stop people from calling United and saying "It says there is 'K' availability, why are you only offering me a V fare????", I think it'll probably work.
I don't think that was their goal...
Originally Posted by
mherdeg
If the goal of this change was to stop people from calling United and saying "my upgrade hasn't cleared yet, guys, what is going on here?", then I'm not sure this is an effective change. The kind of people willing to call and ask about this stuff are also willing to jump through extra hoops to find out whether they need to call.
I think you're much closer...
Originally Posted by
mherdeg
I am fascinated to hear more about the kinds of problems caused by uninformed users calling up United as reported by UA Insider. Is this "why didn't my upgrade clear?!?!" or "why am I not getting a K fare?!" or something else entirely?
I think the "problem" was people calling in and asking why their waitlisted upgrades hadn't cleared when there was R inventory (maybe the confusion was between instrument-supported and CPU)... now, we'll just call repeatedly and ask, "Is there R inventory?"
Originally Posted by
UA-NYC
Not for me - I have a nice, fast connection, and UAL.com still takes 15-20 seconds to pull up any live reservation, slow as usual.
Same here. And EF et al were much faster than 15-20 seconds, so I don't think they were just scraping given how slow UA is through their own GUI.
Originally Posted by
zrs70
Third time posting this! People seem to overlook it still exists!
Works okay for new flight searches--less so for determining whether or not to apply an instrument at a later date (e.g. R opens up), or for when one's upgrade has gotten "stuck" (as has happened to me several times).