Long overdue change that ought to be done asap, imho. ^

+1

You should have found a hotel prior to 2:00 AM .

On a more serious vein, I think that must have been a good time to contemplate improvements for forum nomenclature (and adding the Newbie Forum), because it seems to be quite nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

While I am generally inclined to agree that the forum naming focus on the airline and its FFP rather than simply the FFP, there does remain the problem of the FFPs which serve more than one airline - e.g. Flying Blue and Miles and More. Something needs to be done to ensure that discussion of their programs don't get split into multiple forums as the information is relevant to all airlines which use those FFPs.

In the case of FB, there are already subfora for AF and KLM which are carriers that aren't terribly different in size or the extent of their international networks.

IIRC, the LH forum has a subforum for LX but not for other carriers that are part of the FF program. However, in this case, LH is clearly the dominant entity with LX next and several other carriers. Having those other carriers discussed among the LH threads doesn't seem to cause major problems, although obviously a sub forum for these other carriers could be created under the current FT organization in terms of FF programs.

I could see new forum names something like "LH Family Airlines, including LX" and simply "AF and KLM" and a continuation of their current internal structure with subforums.

Yes, that would be a reasonable solution - the same structure as today but with labels that conform to the way things are working. I would remind the re-organizers that Kenya Airways is also Flying Blue. I think there could be direct reference to the FFP e.g. AF, KLM and all things Flying Blue, or Miles and More family airlines, LH, LX, LO, etc.)

I'd like to see something like this

List all of the airlines alphabetically by name vs program in the forum-jump menu and if the airline in question is a sub-forum of a larger airline (i.e. LX is part of LH), the forum-jump menu takes you directly to the sub-forum airline which in turn is still listed as a sub-forum of the larger airline as it is now

Especially in light of the issues concerning the 787, would it be possible to include in this proposed 'restructuring' fora particular to Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer, etc. where common issues regarding a particular manufacturer or airframe could be discussed regardless of who the operating carrier is?

What you are proposing here would be the creation of new fora, rather than the renaming of existing fora. While I agree that there are enough 787 issues to justify a thread on that particular airframe as it does impact service and passenger decisions, is there really enough happening on all of the others to justify 4+ fora? There are other websites which are devoted to the discussion of the technical aspect of aircraft which are far better suited to in-depth discussions of airframes. I personally don't see the need for Flyertalk to replicate those websites. Flyertalk should stick to its core focus of providing information which is valuable to frequent (and sometimes, not-so-frequent) travelers.

I basically agree, as much as I might like personally to see a place on FT to discuss aircraft issues.

Note that there are a number of threads discussing the 787 in TravelBuzz as well as under the fora of specific airlines that have ordered the 787. However, much of the material in the airline fora focuses on which seats to select and the routes expected to be served by the 787. The stuff in TravelBuzz is likely to be what the person wants, although perhaps there might be an argument for asking the mod(s) of that forum to merge similar threads and/or even create a sticky or wiki about the 787's issues.

+1

+1

LaserSailor here...first time I'm posting to TalkBoard

I moderate two other non-airlines Boards, so I have some experience in Board Mgt.

The UA Mileage Plus Forum, in my humble opinion, has been degraded into a bash UA crowd which is perfectly summarized by a recent poster, in a promptly locked thread. If I am not mistaken, this is the most active Miles Forum on FT.

The UA/CO merger meant leaner benefits for all and most of us don't like it, that's human nature. However, after 12 months its time to move on.

I don't see the crowd letting go of this Forum and it interferes with the ability to get to the useful info on MP in the Forum. I suggest you consider splitting the MP forum into a UA Buzz Sub-forum for discussion of operations, management, complaints etc.

. I think the forum would be better served with the sub-forum structure where Mods coud just keep the opinions and whining in the Buzz side, and useful posts on the MP side.

You are proposing a bifurcation into rants and raves in one subforum and just the facts in the other. Although this has never been done for a travel company forum, it is essentially what our Community Director did with Travel Safety and Security. The problem is the transitional and ongoing workload for the moderators. Our CD would need to be reasonably sure that the workload would be manageable and not a multiple of what it would have been without the split. Therefore this sort of change IMHO should be debated and designed by the moderators and the CD rather than just by the TalkBoard.

Thanks for bringing up this idea. You might want to PM it to the UA forum moderators to kick around on their own.

Thanks! I will redirect to the Mods for digestion.

Apologise if I have mis-used TB for this, I did read the overview and could not find if it was/was not appropriate to suggest here.

On managing the workload - on our Sailing Board we created two Pubs (analogous to Buzz) - one where P/S/R (the three deadly workplace topics) was allowed and one where it was not.

Load was simply enforced with one warning, followed by ban - which made it self moderating in about one week.

To be honest, I might actually read the United forum if something like this were implemented.

It gets really, really old to have 99 posts of "Changes You Will Like" and "$mi$ek" for every useful post with content. The UA forum was always super-busy and hard to keep up with, but now it's gotten to the point where the volume is so high and the signal-to-noise ratio is so low that it's just not worth reading anymore, even occasionally, except for a few specific threads I subscribe to. I get all of my United news from friends who fly United either via conversations with them or their posts on Facebook.