Originally Posted by
BOSskier
We all have to balance work, personal obligations, children, old pets, etc., and thus with these types of unexpected devaluations (or price increases), overnight, all that planning and accumulating of miles is thrown out the window if the timing wasn't perfect. Just because they can, doesn't mean they should.
I want to be clear: I’m not arguing that UA should do this. I’m just saying, the writing has been on the wall that they
would do this, and people shouldn’t be surprised; nor should anyone expect these increases to be magically rolled back. The only reason to get rid of your mileage chart is to be able to increase prices. I’m just shocked that it took this long, as I expected these prices the very first day that the chart was gone.
Originally Posted by
cfischer
The problem is, this is not the first increase since the charts went away. These are not jumps after 5 years of stability. Even if it was 5 years, the annualized rate for a 2-3x is quite an inflation! Going back to last published charts and 5 years we are looking at 3-4x in some cases. Didn't know UA was headquartered in Argentina ... the % per year is staggering.
It’s not the first increase; I think it’s the second major increase. I think there was a feeling — which I tried to combat — that because the partner prices in particular didn’t seem to have moved much, there was some underlying chart for them and they could be relied upon. My take is, it took UA longer than they expected to get dynamic partner awards to work the way they wanted them to work. But, yes, the increase is large — just as I expected it would (eventually) be. If it costs them business, they’ll lower prices again; if not, they probably won’t.