Originally Posted by
bwoodlandca
Now, from what I’m seeing and hearing, the corporate model of greed and manipulating the customer has affected United. I am sorry, but when United is going to charge me $1,100 in addition to the economy seat price just to use 40k miles, that is completely different than the past. I understand it is a better deal than buying a business seat at $6,000, but if they are going to offer “saver” seats with lower miles, then they need to be reasonably available at 10 months out.
Just because the exact dates YOU wanted aren't available 10 months out doesn't mean that seats aren't "generally available". In fact, if you offered the dates you want to travel rather than just complaining we could help you find a routing that would probably work for you, as there are a lot of ways to get to Rome.
And it is different than the past but you overstate your case. About 5 years ago both AA and UA instituted upgrade co-pays. Before that, you had to buy an expensive fare to even be eligible to use mileage upgrades. Net-net it is somewhat more expensive to upgrade, but not that much more. And furthermore, both AA and Delta use the same structure so best of luck finding a program that is more generous.