AeroWesty

If there were less than 12 open F seats on the plane, isn't this exactly how UA Insider said that upgrade offers would work? UA would offer an upgrade to everyone on the plane, then distribute the remaining unsold seats to status pax (who had an opportunity to buy up).

Just for clarification, how many open seats did F have when the upgrade list was at 12?

chinatraderjmr

Next time try checking in without buying the upgrade. On a fair number of my domestic flights I've gotten the buy up offers all the way to T-24. @ T-24 it tells me to check in, and offers a buy up. I hit NO every time on the buy up, check in and then get upgraded right away (as soon as I check in).

I'm not so so angry about them trying to raise revenue by selling upgrades. But what really gets me angry is how can they send me an email telling me I can check in, offer me a buy up for $200 and then as soon as I hit no and check in it upgrades me anyway. It should come with an email message saying "congratulations, for not being a sucker and a fool, please enjoy this comp upgrade as your reward"

toomanybooks

Yep, gotta lay down a base first.

jasondc

...but I dont have elite status




[QUOTE=chinatraderjmr;18633938]Next time try checking in without buying the upgrade. On a fair number of my domestic flights I've gotten the buy up offers all the way to T-24. @ T-24 it tells me to check in, and offers a buy up. I hit NO every time on the buy up, check in and then get upgraded right away (as soon as I check in).

I'm not so so angry about them trying to raise revenue by selling upgrades. But what really gets me angry is how can they send me an email telling me I can check in, offer me a buy up for $200 and then as soon as I hit no and check in it upgrades me anyway. It should come with an email message saying "congratulations, for not being a sucker and a fool, please enjoy this comp upgrade as your reward"[/

DrDesmo

Only 1. Just to clarify, I'm just having a laugh at the way the pricing works (and the $700+ original buyup for a ~60 minute flight.)

No complaints about at least being offered an upgrade ^ and am in 2A for my flight this morning.

Cheers,
Adam

UA-NYC

Even more indicative the rules aren't being followed - w/o status, your buy-up should be to "full retail" as UAI has said. You clearly got a nice discount.

AeroWesty

No, in this post, UAI simply said that the offer would be "based on the status of the customer and the fare class purchased." Shannon did go on to say that for a lower or non-status passenger the fee would be higher than for say a 1K, but not that it would be full retail.

djmp

For me, it's pretty clear that COdbaUA has decided to go whole scale into dynamic pricing everywhere they can (external exec comments indicate they're quite proud of this as a SHARES feature). So knows, maybe it's going to be Buy on Board next. Those salads that were unsold when the cart did its first pass through the cabin? Half price next round.

The issue is that loyalty programs are promise-based systems, not price based systems. I don't know how they hope to make these things coexist - they're basically incompatible.

pdx1M

Their best hope to rationalize price and promise might be to institutionalize some discount. E.g., 1K gets 50% off the best non-elite TOD offer or something like that. As it is they are promising something that the 1K (or other elite) has no way of seeing actually happening and not surprisingly the elites are becoming convinced that the promise is meaningless. They have to reframe the promise in some terms that can be credible.

Superguy

UA clearly sees discounts as a bad thing. It only lowers prices if it absolutely has to. According to them, offering a 1K a lower prices than a kettle is just leaving money on the table.

boolean64

If I am understanding UAI right, the buy-up is always to an upgradeable fare, not some willy-nilly fee. This again proves that either that statement is inaccurate and non-elites are getting willy-nilly fee-based pricing or there is a special type of M and B fares that are only released at T-24. So the cheapest B available prior to check-in was $300 over the ticket price. Then t T-24 a magical B fare gets loaded into inventory that is only $149 above the ticket price.

Bottom line is that at best United is completely clueless of how the system is actually working and people are unintentionally getting buy-up offers nowhere close to "full retail"

At worst, the party line of "full retail" is pure dishonesty on the party of senior management (not UAI) and they hope that no one notices.

Meanwhile I'll be enjoying first clAAs again next week.

Beerman92

I haven't checked fares on ORD-LGA in a couple of weeks but last time I did the A-fare was around $380 one way.

AeroWesty

Willy-nilly fee-based pricing is supposed to be used for non-elites when there are fewer Premiers on the upgrade list than there are available F seats (which doesn't sound like the case here, since the UG list was over 20).

UA could easily avoid a lot of the confusion about buy ups and improve transparency by simply stating "buy up to an M fare for $XXX to enjoy a seat in First", or "take advantage of a special upgrade fee today", etc. to clarify which buy ups are which type. It shouldn't take too much programming effort to include the fare code in the buy up offer, which is the way DL does it, if memory serves.

piemel

What he said

LEONIDES

When I first made it to *Silver, I thought to myself: "Great, now I will start receiving upgrades!" Wrong. I had one upgrade all last year. Bummer....But I thought I would make it to Gold in 2012, and then the upgrades would start happening. I had no upgrades as *Silver in 2012.

When I first made it to *Gold earlier this year, I thought to myself: "Now I'm cooking! Now the upgrades would start rolling in!" Wrong. I had exactly zero upgrades while at *Gold level.

Then I made it to *Plat. You would think by this point, the naivete would have worn off. No. I thought to myself: "Now I'll be at the head of the line! Now those CPUs will start rolling in! Plus I will get 2 RPUs, and I can use those for upgrades, so I am In Like Flynn!" Wrong. I have had precisely one upgrade since moving to *Plat. And each time I have tried to use my RPUs, I was waitlisted, and they didn't clear. I am waiting for all of them to be re-deposited now.

I can kid myself, that when I make it to 1K, things will be great, and then I will start pulling those CPUs! Plus I will get those coveted SWUs, and I can start using those. However, I am convinced that when that happens, my answer to myself will still be.....Wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Given some of the horror stories that 1Ks and GS folks have given, on their difficulties in obtaining upgrades, then I have zero faith in this system right. You would think by now, I would have given up, and switched to a different airline. But I guess I am just a total sucker.