Originally Posted by
exerda
Identical situation for me. During my 20+ years with them, I went from an economy-buying pax who would stretch to meet Gold, then to an economy-buying one who would stretch for 1k, to one who buys mostly front cabin fares, even on hour-long United Express flights where it costs 30-50cpm. And one who has stretched to make all of the additional requirements UA hot me with over recent years.
Now, there's no reason to. I'll buy whatever the deepest discount F is on whichever carrier. Those shorter Express flights? E+ on the cheapest fare they sell; it's only an hour or two, after all.
I figure UA is going to lose up to $10k or so in incremental revenue from me, not to mention the change fees, etc., I had paid them.
Well, that's the course they want.
Same here. The changes to MP over the last three years have turned me into a customer who looks for the deepest discount F seats on short haul flights, and on long-haul I purchase PE, where I have is 75% success rate upgrading to J. Almost none of these flights have been on United.
Close friend of mine has remained loyal to United throughout this period. I have unsuccessfully over the last 18 months try to get him to come over to the Dark side. He called me on Saturday, and said hey can you go over again how it is that you are getting upgraded 75% of the time on long hauls?