Recently, I sent a letter to Co complaining about the "loophole" that allows silvers to upgrade over plats at the airport that has been further exposed by rev management holding seats back. I also mentioned my dislike of the BF upgrade situation and the elimination fo 20K rewards.

Less than a week later, I recieved a call from the managing director for loyalty programs -- the guy who heads onepass and reports to Bergsrud. He spent 25 minutes discussing my concerns.

Within 2 weeks, the EUA problem should be fixed. Basically, the seats will dump at 3.5hours and EUA will run at 3hours. Even if you are checked in and/or inflight, you should be upgraded. Of course, as will all things IT, nothing is guranteed.

He said that before HoKeY, CO was receiving a large number of complaints about people not making upgrades. These complaints have stopped and they have not received alot of complaints concerning HoKeY. The new HoKeY was designed to allow people to upgrade while preserving revenue stream without forcing people to pay for an upgradeable fare that might not be upgradeable.

I don't like the policy, but it is not an unreasonable business judgement. Ultimately, whether HoKeY is good or bad will be measured by the bottom line impact.

He apologized for the Gordo "no benefits reduction thing."

Overall, I was very impressed with the level and speed of CO's response. My biggest complaint is being addressed. For these reasons, I am stickig with CO (at least for domestic travel).

Also, look for an announcement about improvements to the BF product in the near future.

Joey stands, hands in his pockets, whistling and awaiting the arrival of NJDavid.....

humungous ditto. i can't wait (well, actually, i can...i'm just saying i can't wait).

funny that YOU of all people are the one to say that....



------------------
Bad Gordon!

No Freddie for you!

OK, people. This is getting really tiresome. Can we please just grow up. I don't care who started it, let's not continue it.

[This message has been edited by Dudster (edited 02-25-2002).]

In other words; things are not going to change as far as international upgrades go. Those who were hoping that a change could still conceivably be in the works-- forget it. It's over. Any planned improvement (or "enhancement") to the BF product (seat) will only make things worse as far as price/availability are concerned.

If I hadn't given up on CO for my international travel beforehand (best decision I ever made, travel-wise)-- I certainly would now. "Complaints have ceased-- problem solved" Clear enough?

OTOH, the EUA work-around does actually seem like a pretty good solution, IMHO. Not that it affects me at all.

JonNYC, did I read that you had some CO Pres. Club coupons that were burning a hole in your pocket? If so, let me know please. Thank you.

Does this mean that F seats will dump only at T-3.5h? Sometimes it's nice to know in advance if I should practice my Yoga before having to squeeze in the back.

Regardless, this should fix most peoples' complaints about EUA.

I, for one, will be pleased with this step forward. I would rather see a timely release of seats at the 5, 3 & 1 day windows, but that's not going to happen.

Anything that does away with the "free-for-all" at the airport is good

they said that they haven't gotten many complaints about HoKeY. i, for one, complained via snail mail and email and didn't even get a form letter back acknowledging my letter. maybe they just instruct the mail room to trash some of them.

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 02-25-2002).]

Maybe if you would learn how to spell,capitalize and punctuate, as well as form a complete sentence, you would get an answer!

[This message has been edited by IM4Travel (edited 02-25-2002).]

When someone orders a special meal, prior EUA is much more important than a day of flight upgrade as 24 hrs are needed to upgrade the meal (if it shows up). That saves them a lot on food costs.

Well, onepass doesn't control the release of seats, so i don't know. I would think that revenue management is constantly fine tuning things and that there is a possibility they may relax things a bit after they evaluate the revenue impact of holding seats back.

One other thing we talked about was the 3 day window. He said that they had a real problem with people making false reservations in order to secure upgrades, forcing them to institute this rule. There are two reasons that AA and UA don't have as much of a problem with this. The first is that they have more seats up front. The second, is that they can overbook business class as long as seats are available in first.

Why would you think I would have anything to day about this issue?

Because I've heard all this before?

Because the stupid claim that "it's not our fault it's revenue management" does not hold water if they are promising a 5 day upgrade window benefit that they know to be a lie in the majority of cases?

Because blaming the "bad passengers" for the 72 hour rule does not account for the fact that the very uniformed employees who administer this rule benefit by screwing the platinum elites as they breeze past them in the smallest coach seat in the air and take the open BF seats?

Because they claim to be "enhancing" their program to "industry standards", but still require Saturday night stays, have almost no seats available at standard reward levels, and require miles AND money to get an international upgrade?

Because they are the company that brought us the cardboard pizza and Lorenzo...I mean Gordo the Liar, part 2 - the printed version?

Nah, I've got nothing to say about any of that.