I've been following the threads on this board for several months now, and am curious about something.

Why are there so many more postings relating to UA than to any other airline? For example, I understand that AA's Aadvantage program is roughly the same size as Mileage Plus, but AA postings are probably only 1/4 to 1/3 the number of UA postings.

Is it because UA's program is more complicated? Because UA is a vastly better or vastly worse airline? Because UA treats its elite members so much better than non-elites, that mileage accumulation is crucial regardless of whether you're saving for awards?

Charlie

Charlie

This question has come up before but I'll summarize the most common responses for newer FlyerTalkers

(1) Star Alliance - lots of questions involve mileage credit on Star Alliance partners, code-shares etc. etc. - so United has the complexity of 6+ different airlines
(2) International Routes - United seems to dominate many international flights - which are of greater concern to frequent fliers
(3) United propensity to screw up things - late statement, missing miles etc. etc.
(4) Mustard Pretzels - 'nuff said
(5) Rudi and Catman - who account for a fair number of posts are both UA fliers.


[This message has been edited by megamiles (edited 01-22-99).]

MM: If there was an award for the most comprehensive answer to a question, you would certainly get my vote with that post.

A very pleasing mix of fact, fiction and the banal!
MF

Charlie... United is the largest airline in North America (or so their ads say... is Air
Canada larger BlondeBomber?) U-A has a lot of planes and a lot of hubs and a lot of cities served. They also virtually cover the world (Asia, South America, Europe, Australia, Hawaii, I don't think Africa or Mid East.. but Lufthansa takes care of that.)

It's a powerful airline and a lot of us fly U-A. It's also one of the biggest employee owned companies in the world. You can say U-A is the British Airways of the U-S-A (sorry Merry) but sometimes without the service or the attention.

I know I'm going to get a zillion posts for that last remark! !!!

Megamiles also explained well why U-A may get a lot of postings. And Merry concurred (Although I don't think anything RUdi and I post is banal!) CATMAN

Charlie... United is the largest airline in North America (or so their ads say... is Air
Canada larger BlondeBomber?) U-A has a lot of planes and a lot of hubs and a lot of cities served. They also virtually cover the world (Asia, South America, Europe, Australia, Hawaii, I don't think Africa or Mid East.. but Lufthansa takes care of that.)

It's a powerful airline and a lot of us fly U-A. It's also one of the biggest employee owned companies in the world. You can say U-A is the British Airways of the U-S-A (sorry Merry) but sometimes without the service or the attention.

I know I'm going to get a zillion posts for that last remark! !!!

Megamiles also explained well why U-A may get a lot of postings. And Merry concurred (Although I don't think anything RUdi and I post is banal!) CATMAN

Catman, UA is the largest airline in the world, not just NA. I believe it also has the most mileage program members.

The biggest frequent flier program is American Airlines AAdvantage with 33 million members.

(SOURCE: Randy Peterson, January AMEX SkyGuide)

Thanks all, particularly Mega.

I dunno, though, I kinda like mustard pretzels. At least, better than a dry bagel in a Bistro Bag.

Charlie

AA is the biggest and the FIRST ff program.

I did not know that U-A was the biggest carrier in the world vgrove. I thought it was British (Merry, please step in here!)

Though the airline with the biggest ego is Sir Richard's Virgin. Especially after winning some OAG award (esp the best transatlantic airline prize.) Here come the ads! CATMAN

Catman: UA is the largest carrier in the world. My defenition of that is passenger numbers and miles and UA come in first.

BA is the worlds largest carrier of International traffic - which isn't that hard for a UK carrier, 40 minutes from any point in just about any direction and it is international.

What the hell - size isn't everything!
MF

PS: For someone who said they didn't like those 'smileys' you sure are using alot of them Catman

[This message has been edited by Merry (edited 01-23-99).]

Alright, Chazaz, don't get me started! I'm MP-free so far in '99, and I hope to stay that way!

OK, I have a theory here, and only the great and powerful Randy Peterson can provide an answer about its accuracy.

I too have noticed that United earns a far larger-than-average number of postings on this site. I think the real reason has to do with a promotion that United had with Inside Flyer a few years back. The promotion undoubtedly boosted the percentage of Mileage Plus members among Inside Flyer subscribers, and had a few other interesting consequences, too.

The promotion was this: In the summer of 1992, United arranged for Inside Flyer subscribers to receive a free upgrade to Premiere status in the Mileage Plus program. The status was in effect for the balance of the year, regardless of how many miles subscribers had flown with the airline previously or whether they were even MP members to begin with. The offer was through a coupon inserted into every issue of the magazine. I was a regular United flyer already, but only logged 10 or 15K annually (Premiere level normally requires 25K miles/annually; Premiere Exec is 50K). I sent the coupon in and started to receive Premiere flight bonuses and upgrade coupons in Sept 1992.

I don't recall the specifics of what we needed to do to maintain Premiere status (my recollection is that we had to fly 10K by the end of the year), but I requalified for Premiere status for 1993. But I only flew about 18K on United in 1993, and I assumed my status level would descend back to the lowly depths of regular members. Wrong. In Nov 1993, I was boosted to Premiere Exec status, without explanation (not that I complained). In 1994, I flew "only" 36K with United and yet my Premiere Exec status remained in effect for 1995! From then on, my status level in the program was based on the same rules that apply to everyone else.

Why did United do this? Back in 1992, Inside Flyer's annual Freddie awards were swept by Continental's OnePass, as they had been since the beginning of the awards, as I recall. I think that United calculated that by boosting a few thousand Inside Flyer subscribers to Premiere level it might earn them enough favor among voters to buy the award. It didn't in 1992. But my boost to Premiere Exec level occurred in Nov 1993, just as ballots for the 1993 awards went out. United did win for that year, and the following. It was sometime after that that the voting was opened up to non-subscribers, and United started to fare less favorably in the voting.

Now, there were probably other factors at stake (one of which was that Continental's program fell out of favor for awhile), but I believe the primary reason United could advertise "the best" frequent flyer program in the industry for several years running is that they gave the relatively small number of voters exactly what they craved most: more miles. What better payoff could we ask for?

Subsequently, I think a large number of Inside Flyer's long-time subscribers are Mileage Plus members.

Maybe its because United is the worst airline out there. You know, do something right and it takes 10 times before people tell somebody, do something wrong and they tell everybody they can stop. I quit flying United 2 years ago because service was SO BAD. I fly over 100 segments a year--a lot of up and down west coast but about 10 coast to cost trips a year and a bunch of Seattle/Chicago. United stinks compared to Alaska. (Of course I do have to do Northwest for east/west and that leaves something to be desired) Maybe the new American connection will improve the east/west flights.

But, Alaska/Horizon gives everybody free micro beer and or special wine in the pm, Starbucks and scones in the AM and great gourmet snacks even on very short flights. Most of all they are FUN FUN FUN.

I flew United during the NW strike and they were even worse than I remembered. And they knew I was a gold member, what were they thinking? Sure blew a chance to re-win any bucks from me. Even worse is the fact that I am the boss and if I don't fly UA, then our travel agent thinks that means the whole company can't fly UA. HAHAHA, they should have been nicer to me. "Employees" who "Own" that company are big time loseers (of money that isn't going into their own pockets!)

Hope this doesn't offend and UA devotees, but try Alaska and then compare before you take a stand.

I wonder what determines which airline is the largest? I read last week that Delta carried the most passenger last year, 105,000,000.

Dansil:
You are indeed correct. Delta flew more than 105 million passengers last year. The following extract from a Delta Air Lines press release confirms this:

Delta is the leading U.S. airline across the Atlantic and the
world�s most flown airline, with over 105 million passengers flying on
Delta last year. Delta, Delta Express, the Delta Shuttle, the Delta
Connection carriers and Delta�s Worldwide Partners operate 5,211 flights
each day to 353 cities in 56 countries throughout the U.S., Canada,
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean from 12 U.S. gateway cities.