So, as much as I hate to say it, the way this thread (and some of the others, like the GF lounge thread) has evolved, it appears that the dearly departed Mr. Rainey may have been correct, that there are overentitled elites, and we're bringing it on ourselves.
Clearly, UA is trying to do a series of short term nice things that are going to shift around. Honestly, I have to give them credit for that. Not as much credit as I would give them if they made all these changes permanent, but they are nice touches for so long as they last. We're to blame for mass hysterically thinking that these changes are forever (I'm personally disappointed that I won't have that on my flight on Monday).
The problem, and where I think there's a real misstep by UA, is that they've forgotten that it's 2015. There's this thing called the internet, which includes things like FT and Twitter and blogs (whatever those are).
If UA does something nice, then people are going to talk about it instantly and it's going to become a frequent flyer meme. UA has to figure out how to manage expectations.
To me it seems like
UAInsider should come on here and write a post saying something like this:
CUE fuzzy screen and mystic music
Hey, FT gang. We know that flying isn't what it was back in the 60's. No stewardesses in hot pants, no cigars, no coach lounges on 747's and no all male flights. None of those are coming back.
That said, we do want to return some of the joy to flying. We have 150 gnomes sitting in a room coming up with great ideas for how to make the travel experiences of our important Premier members a little better from time to time. These are treats that we've cooked up, and we're going to do a lot of different things for you. We're not going to announce when they're happening, we're not going to announce when they will stop. But we hope you'll enjoy some of them on your next flight.
Or something like that to manage expectations accordingly.
Greg