The lousy 2012 Move Up program has stuck because people put up with it, pay US a lot of fees, and don't do things to make US's life difficult as a result of the Move Up Program like:
1. Filing DOT complaints at
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov when they believe they have ben disserviced by an airline policy. I agree there is no law or regulation against an initiative like the 2012 Move Up Program, but my understanding is an airline passenger cna file a DOT complaint on any topic and DOT will catalog that complaint and it will ding the offending airline in the applicable months ranking. Again, it will ding the airline whehter or not the airline, DOT, or you or I believe the fundamentals of the compalint are legitimate or not. Anyone correct me if I am wrong on this?
2. Contact national and local media, and try to have press coverage of US's lousy 2012 Move Up program. Say you will be moving your business to Delta or United which have a more consumer favorable policy in this regard. Try to get the press, blogs, podcasts, etc. to cover the differences between US's Move Up program and similar offerings by Delta & United. If ten people wrote say to Scott at the Wall Street Journal
[email protected] he might cover this.
3. As a courtesy send the news releases to US's vice president of revenue management, Divident Miles, director of customer relations, or other executives. Try to find the mailing address for the executive, and even Fedex the letter. Maybe even send them the letters are home so their assistants cannot as easily deflect the letter to the Cusotmer (we don't care) Relations.
4. Dial in to US Airways investor conference calls, and ask executives questions on why the company has a less than competetive process (2012 Move Up) when compared to Delta & United.
5. Every time you fly on Delta & United send the receipt to US executives, and tell them you are choosing the other carrier due to the 2012 Move Up Policy.
6. Organize an informational picket at US airports or corporate headquarters and give the public brochures on the inferior US 2012 Move Up Policy, and show how Delta and United have more customer favoring policies. The informational protests may be best at citys where US competes with DL and UA. The media also loves these kinds of things, so invite friends from the media. The media generally has a philosophy that the airlines are screwing their customers so I think they would enjoy this story with video of protesters, brochures, and the angle could be even if you are like the guy in Up In The Air that US Airways screws you but United and Delta understand our needs.
That is 6 ideas on a night with little sleep and only half a cup of coffee.
A bit more immediate advice is that the ticket agents have processes where they can reissue or revalidate your ticket to accommodate any changes, allows by company policy or not. Some ticket agents believe their job will be in jeopardy if they violate company policy on this, and others will violate company policy with little to no concern about possible consequences. It probably has to do with the gumption the agent has or doesn't have. You may have had better luck trying 3 different IAH agents if that was possible.
Good luck.