I'm kind of late in reading this thread, but wow this change sucks. I'd thought that maybe I'd screwed up something so that I hadn't been able to check fare bucket availability recently. Now I know where the fault lies.

Unlike others here I can't claim that I'm leaving UA (not a realistic option, given that I'm SFO-based). But it sure does make me a less satisfied customer, more likely to jump at some point in the future.