bocastephen

They can fawn over big spenders all they want without kicking everyone else in the nuts.

At CO, big spenders were rewarded ahead of smaller spenders:

Instant upgrades on Y/B and M fares
Waitlist priority for BF
Upgrade list sorted by full fare first, then fare class within each tier

GS/PP is an appropriate program to reward individual big spenders and provide them with extra services - all without kicking everyone else to the curb.

Does this airline want only a small number of Elites and the rest of the seats taken up with kettles who bought their ticket on Orbitz? No more loyal customers?

I, for one, have a 11+ year relationship with this airline from the Gordon days and I am not going to sit quietly and get steamrolled by a bean counter....and I trust most of the folks in this forum are thinking the same way.

Our colleagues in the Delta forum are close to a break through in their fight - and it's not just FTers who fought back. Regular customers who are not FT-aware took to Twitter and Facebook to slam the company aggressively to the point where their social media team spent all of it's time deleting critical comments.

Could you imagine the meltdown that would happen over here, and in the overall customer community if this rumor became fact? Look how this thread grew with only one unsubstantiated comment about what UA *might* be thinking of introducing next year.

Remember US in 2001. They are playing with fire here and better be careful.

quantumslip

wow if this happens, then gg to my elite status in 2013. maybe this is their way of trying to upsell the presidential plus card even more to be an almost-elite despite downgrading it

nov11

I am hoping that someone misread revenue and $. This will be much more palatable:

Gnopps

I'd like to see how they in an easy way explain to the customer how revenue is calculated. What if I am travelling on LAX-UA-IAD-SK-CPH on a SK fare basis and SK ticket, how do they calculate revenue for the UA LAX-IAD segment? Good luck UA rewarding loyalty, the thing that makes customer pay a higher price for you rather than to go with a cheaper alternative.

mingming

Perhaps AC will be my next haven, as a mileage runner and the kind of person who just loves flying whenever I get some extra money. 35k for *A Gold. 10k on AC is not hard at all, given their decent fares to Asia and Europe with better equipment and service. Free access to RCC is a plus. The downside is no E+, no upgrades on UA, and only 50% bonus. Well, upgrade opportunity has already been really scarce for low-tier members on UA nowadays. So AC seems to fit me well.

Orwaid

I will tell you that it is entirely emancipating to just go with whoever has the best deal. And your out-of-pocket costs go down with no MRs. Yes, you might forgo some mileage bonuses, but that gets offset by the extra cash in your pocket you can use to buy a flight that you actually NEED.

And it is easier to just buy International C/Z on some international flag carrier, usually for less than what UA charges. Unlike the domestic market, there are lots of carriers still flying to international cities

Or, just buy the miles from a carrier when they sell them 2 for 1 and then use them for a partner award in J or F. Easy to do at reduced cost and hassle.

And finally, Instead of UDU, what with the monetization of FC, you can usually find a carrier that will sell a discount FC ticket.

So, for all of these people that are threatening to send letters, tweets, phone calls, etc, I would say just vote with your feet and your wallet and just go away.

If UA management really wants any of you back, I am sure they will find a way to let you know.

BearX220

That's a very fair question. I know that at BA in 2003 the answer was a firm yes. They were convinced all non-premium customers were purely price-driven and immune to loyalty strategy. (This left all sorts of questions unanswered, from what happens when a CEO on vacation with his family back in economy is treated badly, to how you cultivate future loyalists who start out in row 48.) In any event the recession, which landed more than a few CEOs in coach, proved the folly of building the airline around F and J trade and giving everyone else the high hat.

Me too. I've been CO elite since 1998, when you could score an upgrade simply by ringing in at T-72, and I really miss Gordon's airline. But it's dead and gone, isn't it?

The playing field is dramatically different today. In 2001 there was a rich menu of network carriers to defect to: US, AA, NW, CO, TW, DL, UA... today, there's about half that number and they are far more impervious to the wishes and complaints of increasingly captive, resigned customers.

meFIRST

This would explain why Glen Tilton unloaded some of his UAL stock recently

Minnesota Bruin

I'd feel much better if UA Insider chimed in and said this is all bunk.

FlyerChrisK

It took UA Insider a few days or so to show up to the 2P's can select exit rows thread.

Don't worry, the scientists conducting this experiment are taking copious notes behind the one-way mirror to see how we react to the bait.

limitless

N.B. NOT. POSITIVELY.

nov11

+1. Post started about 8:30 PM PDT and it already has 100+ replies within 3.5 hours and almost all of them negative - wait till the East Coast fliers read this tomorrow!

DBCme

i'm scared, sad, upset.
hope it's all just a bad dream

Troy_smf

as a 2P/Premier Silver who travels to Tokyo ~once a year along with assorted domestic travel, if I lose access to E+ at booking time, they lose me.

kyunbit

I would have agreed with you if they had improved the perks of status. They have only downgraded it.