Originally Posted by
cfischer
What is even worse with new interface is the inability to search for business class in the first place. UGH ... horrible. You have to randomly select flight and then see what the 'upgrade' would look like? Seriously? This is terrifying.
That's because priceline is in the industry of making money when they sell bulk fares. When they sell a published fare, they don't make money on the airfare portion of the bundle. My guess is that given the limited amount of business class availability, UA does not routinely release business fares to priceline in a bulk format. Additionally it is unlikely the typical priceline user is looking to purchase a business class fare if they are shopping for a bargain by using priceline in the first place. So while their agreement with UA probably obligates them to show options to upgrade, the upgrade is
likely to a published business fare, which works against priceline's goal, as they make less money from someone booking a published business fare instead of being able to sell them a bulk economy ticket at a markup. For both these reasons, it would make sense why searching for business on priceline isn't the most prominent thing.