EUA *IS* Determined by Fare Basis
 

Through various contacts at CO, I have unequivocal validation that EUA since the beginning of March *is* now being run through a fare-class gauntlet.

In other words, even if you're Platinum Elite, if a Silver Elite books a fare class higher than what you did, you will be "beaten out" (to put in the words of one contact) by that Silver.

Two questions follow:

1. Of what use is it anymore to qualify for Gold or Platinum Elite if you can be trumped by Silver, and not just on a Y fare? There is really no more meaning to being Gold or Platinum Elite.

2. Didn't anyone at CO consider that by adding the fare basis criterion for EUA, they are essentially penalizing Elites for booking early (hence having a better crack at lower fare-basis fares)?

This move is really one that flies in the face of the very customers who made CO's reputation what it is today. What a way to repay the support.

I feel like I just learned that my lover is actually a whore.

P.S. Thanks for letting us know you've made this change, CO. Did you think no one would notice?

[This message has been edited by Beef or Chicken? (edited 03-14-2002).]

Your paraphrasing of what you heard offers a completely different meaning than what you originally said.

Although I'm now open to the possibility that fare class is a factor (beyond Y vs. discount) in EUA, I refuse to believe that it is without regard for Elite level.

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daniel baker -- [email protected]
Reliable, fast, and unmoderated forums at ITYT.

Daniel, please don't start an argument over semantics. So call my Ivy League education a waste on account of my poor diction.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The de facto condition *is* that Elite level matters no more. Isn't that what "Silver trumping Platinum even on non-Y fares" effectively boils down to?

Listen, you are you are talking to a guy who has been earning Platinum Elite 3-4 times over each year, year after year for the past several years, who has an intimate experience with pre-EUA and EUA upgrade patterns. Never until the last two weeks have I been subjected to watching A/D/F inventory dwindling day after day finally down to zero, without my having received upgrades right at the very start of the 5-day window.

If someone like me could not notice something rotting in Denmark (more appropos, Houston), then we've all been every bit as deluded in thinking that CO is the land-of-milk-and-honey that those at 1600 Smith Street think it is.

Sorry to rain on your parade, Daniel, but CO is going down a path of alienating its best customers. I know you've got a lot vested in CO with your ITYT (which I peruse and admire). But try to withhold cognitive dissonance reduction, and see the situation for what it is. It affects all of us.

ROTFLMAO! I could not agree more... as you can see as I stated in a thread today, I was like 97% last year, 100% this year up until March and now 30%.

If I can get confirmation that this is happening I will have to evaluate my options for another carrier.

This would be a very, very, very serious change in the OP program. I'd wait to see if independent verification is forthcoming.

Of course, when I say "I'd wait..." I'll actually be waiting at the Admiral's Club, so it don't make no difference to me, really.

But this would be a major development, if by some chance it's true.

Suckers http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

Don't you mean "TurQeys"? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Yes. Both because it's more clever and more polite, I should have said that!

I'm skeptical. I'm Plat and my dad's Silver. He and I are were on the same flight this week. He was booked in V, I in T; my EUA came through, his didn't.

Could you please elaborate on your sources?
(Not that I don't believe you, as anecdotally this would seem to be true)

As far as I have been told, as of yesterday, they are using the fare class as a determinant *within* Elite groups...

I have yet to be informed that fare class is a determinant irrespective of Elite group... this would seem to be contrary to the whole point of separate Elite statuses...

but I am having a hard time understanding how I went from 12/12 in Jan and Feb to 3/10 in March... there sure as hell sounds like there's something to be said for this arguement...

Perhaps one of you will be kind enough to simply call the elite desk and ask them explicitly whether or not this is the case (or ask OnePass). I can't get either number to work from my student-blocked phone in Europe...

It's not you.. the number (like EUA) is broken

Calling the elite line would be useless. The only people who really know what EUA is or isn't doing are the IT people who programmed it. Next in line come the folks in marketing who worked with the IT people to implement it, then comes those folks' management who ordered its implementation. After that it's the management in reservations who were informed of how EUA worked and then comes the front line supervisors who train the reservations people.

So there is 5 degrees of separation between the people who answer the elite line and the people who know what is going on with EUA. That makes the odds that those people know what is going on approximately 0.

Sad but true.

FWIW....the PLAT phone number that's printed on the back of my new card does indeed work.