Originally Posted by
PrivatePilot
I dont believe this is completely SQ's doing.. think about it - the whole rational to increase partner awards on 2/1 was the cost to UA. Since everyone (myself included) is burning their UA miles on partner airlines, UA wants to do something to stop the bleeding. They already removed expertflyer searches back in Oct and now they are removing SQ flights from UA.com. Its just about making it that much harder to book a flight prior to the 2/1 deadline.
However, in spite of the 2/1 increase, UA was still far better in terms of Delta and many others in terms of award availability and booking online. I was willing to pay a premium if it could save me the hours of anguish to talk to an agent and check award availability day by day. If UA makes these changes permanent, there is no difference between them, Delta or the others that have lousy search engines.
UA should try to differetiate itself in that regard and then maybe people might be willing to pay a premium in terms of time saved. Otherwise they are no different than the rest of them...
For every OA award booking UA can avoid making, they are saving a bit of money and as everybody knows, UA is out to save $2 billion and every little bit helps. Many people don't have hours of time to spend on the phone to claim an award. Others simply won't see any availability online and leave it at that. If this leads to more people blowing miles on UA flights, all the better for the bean counters.