Originally Posted by
leonidas
Respectfully, disagree. To me, as a consumer, the basic purpose is to book a ticket and fly. All of them are simply a currency different than the USD at the end of the day. Just because you are brilliant at playing the game doesn't mean that everyone else needs to jump through the hoops. Simple things like FFC and travelbank can't be used to buy a ticket together is just absolutely ridiculous. Flying itself is a stressful experience. Why add even more stress at the booking stage.
By your logic, they should add 5 more currencies that serve other purposes. How about a currency that can be only used for paying for E+. Or another for paying only bag fees. Etc.
I agree that allowing the consumer to combine currencies such as FFC and TB would obviously make it simpler and easier for the customer and I would love to see that happen although I just can't see United having an incentive to do so.
However, I believe
jsloan was trying to say that if United made any changes in the name of simplification it would be in their (United's) favor and not in the customer's favor which is what you want. For example, they can decide that TB and any ETC awarded to a specific consumer (for a missing meal, mechanical delay, etc) will be tied only to that specific passenger's name just like an FFC is - so they're going to say that they're "simplifying" things because now all 3 currencies are tied to a specific person and only they can use it (and perhaps allow them to even combine), however this is not in favor of the consumer because previously you could use ETC and TB to book for anyone, but if United adopted such a new rule you couldn't do that anymore which is a net negative.