<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by wildblueyonder:
I guess what I don't understand is how someone who takes 2 trips across the pond to get 1P status on revenue of $1500, can think that unpredictable, and usually unprofitable vacation travel should be valued more heavily than the travel of a business flyer who spends hundreds of hours in airports, yet more on planes, and many thousands of dollars on airfare.
The truth is, I spend my discretionary business dollars with an airline that treats me well when I'm spending my (more price sensitive) discretionary personal dollars.
I don't have all the time in the world. And, though I love my job, it's really rough signing up for a multiple hour flight every Monday morning and Friday afternoon of the year. I pick an airline that shows respect for my scarce time and my continued, profitable, business.
John26, I'm sure you're just interested in what's best for your situation; and for that I can't fault you. But hopefully this sheds a little light on why the rest of us care about using a SWU on a cheap fare on our week off--and why that's important to United's long term business travel volume.
It seems to me that in these difficult bk. times, UAL should be upping the ante on how it treats its best customers.</font>
Fair enough (although that's not how I earned my status). I fly about 54,000 per year mostly on H with the occasional Q and cheapie S thrown in for fun surprise trips. I work a second job on my days off to support this travel habbit (the University doesn't pay that much but gives ample vacation time).
I agree especially with your last comment (such as the giving away of companion tickets).
I don't think my position has changed about not giving higher priority to 1Ks trying to upgrade their cheap vacation fares with SWUs, but I think if I was in your shoes, I would probably feel the way you do. I think you're seeing this from a time-invested point of view (hey I invest a lot of time flying you guys, and while it's not my money it's still my choice) while I'm looking at it from a "what do I spend personally" point of view. I do appreciate you taking a second to see where I was coming from.
On another note, others have commented about the differnce in H+ fares for last minute vacation travel. Last minute int'l vacation travel has only been made cheap recently since the economic downturn. In the past, if you wanted a reasonably priced fare, you had to give reasonable advance notice. I would imagine the low Q and V fares that only require 7-day advance purchase will go bye-bye (or just sell out) when int'l air travel eventually increases. It amazes me when I can buy a ticket 1 day prior (not an E-fare), for the same price I bought it for 1 month in advance.
Most importantly, discussing these 2 topics, as well as participating in FlyerTalk in general, is a learning process for me. Thanks to everyone that has made it that.