Originally Posted by
bmr12
All of this is completely under UA's control. UA can decide what the connection rules are for a given fare. UA decides the fare. UA decides whether to award miles or not, and whether to accrue anything toward status, and what the perks of status entail. The only thing the customer does is decide to buy a given fare with a given set of rules or not.
True. What cracks me up is the customer puts in a query, UA gives options with a price and rules, UA prices it low (or "too low" for some people), customer buys it and the CUSTOMER is the bad guy???
If UA has a problem with a fare, then UA shouldn't sell the fare. Period. It's not the like the customer is hacking the system to get it to spit out a cheap fare. If SHARES is spitting out fares that are too low, it's UA's problem to fix, and not the customer's fault for accepting UA's offer.
My response to the "too many premiers" comment? There are too many UA CSRs with bad attitudes that should be fired. It's evident that the attitude is coming down from the top.
I did a couple MRs on US recently, and I was asked by US staff at the clubs and phone CS why I was doing what I was doing. All either understood or thought it was cool - none gave me grief. One club lady even mentioned someone coming thru the night before doing the exact same thing.
Originally Posted by
sbm12
Correct...and they are shifting the rules which suggests that what has been described as "loyalty" is not necessarily a good thing to the company. I don't think any agent should be rude to a customer but after a few times of calling back and asking for the same favor eventually someone has to tell the person to cut it out.
If that's the only benefit you care about then perhaps it is time to reevaluate your choice in travel providers. Especially if you are taking connections all the time anyways. But there are many other benefits which come with the status levels, including the bending of rules occasionally which you seem to have benefitted from more than once based on your original post.
There's a big difference between telling a person asking for a favor to cut it out and criticizing a pax's reason for traveling and not spending enough on a ticket.