demkr

Oh, Mr. Smisek.

How I hate letting you win.....

MIA-ORD-SFO...I Just purchased a $602 upfare to A class. My understanding is I will earn 125% EQM on this segment.

Both flights were F1 and I didn't feel like sitting in back.

I think the upcharges are working.

Anyone else feeling "tempted" to buy-up when inventory gets low?

maize&blue

Nope, what's tempting is other airlines' fares.

halls120

^^

MPsince1984

Agree with that. ^

BearX220

+ 100. The AirTran buy-up offers at OLCI are reasonable and rewarding (just paid $49 to sit up front on a two-hour flight). On top of a lower purchased coach fare, the principal temptation is to forget about UA.

avidflyer

I agree the temptation is to book away from UA. I was literally one click away from buying a OW BOS-LAX ticket for the 18'th and I decided to stick with UA and see what happens. I think there is some panic in the system that is based on integration issues and not wholesale program changes. Time will tell but I am not about to start shelling out for UGs. With over a million miles on DL and 400K on UA I can handle sitting in the back occasionally...I mean you gotta put this stuff in perspective. If it stays like this I will make a move back to DL for domestic but I firmly believe it will end up being much closer to the old system in terms of UG % once the issues shake out.

demkr

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

These buyups pre check in must be the difference in fare?

avidflyer

Should be but there was a bug with that as well. I also think the buy up algorithm looks at how full FC is after the first sweep and starts to lower the price. If that is the case, and the system bugs were causing almost every reservation to not get an auto upgrade, the system may have thought the flight is incredibly lightly booked in front wit no elites. To me the bottom line is that there are too many issues to nail this down right now but as they pick off some of these problems it should start to come into focus a little better.

whakojacko

Slightly OT, but from what I'm reading, A now earns 250% RDM and 150% EQM?
(See)
http://pss.united.com/CMS/en-US/Mark...es/united.aspx

redwoman

Interesting; this seems to have been simplified from what UnitedHub said a month ago. I had seen this ultra-complicated scheme where F and A were awarded a bigger RDM bonus if they were on a 3-cabin vs a 2-cabin plane. Now, it appears that the equipment doesn't matter.

At least I *think* I remember correctly. With 8 boarding groups, 5 elite levels, and different upgrade clearing processes depending upon whether it is CPU or not, my head is spinning trying to keep track of it all.

redwoman

Totally agree with you! I think that DL offers buyups in a similar price range.

I had taken advantage of what PMUA called Premium Seating, which was often very reasonable and had nothing to do with the difference between E and C/F or C and F. They were always even numbers, like $300 or $350 for a domestic route on which I was unlikely to get a CPU or cleared upgrade w/instrument, such as SFO-IAD or SFO-ORD, and it sure wasn't the fare difference between cabins. The fare difference was often something huge, like $1000+ between discount E and discount C or F. So, I often snagged those buyups. But if the new UA is simply going to calculate the fare difference and ask me if I'd like to "upgrade" for *only* $1508.60 or some other high, noneven number, then why wouldn't i just have purchased an F fare in the first place?

Jeez, smilin' Jeff, a preschooler would be able to figure out that "purchasing an upgrade for *only* $1589.60" or whatever is simply buying F at the going rate. We've been loyal and stupid so far but we're not that stupid. Nor may we turn out to be that loyal.

Often1

Yeah - But since WN has already started the process of converting FL's aircraft to its all-Y configuration, this is a short-term issue. Within a few months: all steerage.

entropy

The UA "Premium Seating" option was based on NF (upgrade space), so they were allowing upgrade awards (15k miles/CR1s), or allowing you to pay cash (based on distance) instead of instruments.

flyinbob

I truly am at a loss trying to understand what in first class (domestic especially) is worth $600. When you consider (as one example) you can get a pretty nice hotel suite when you land for that, and enjoy considerably more perks than in F on United for a lot longer period of time, I am amazed that people are actually buying. Can someone please explain the cost benefit?

ijgordon

Well, the repeated chiropractor visits after a long economy flight can easily top $600 if you don't have a good insurance plan.

Seriously -- for me it would be avoiding a very uncomfortable position for 6 hours. $600 on a regular domestic flight is probably pushing it, but clearly it's a YMMV, in part dependent upon the size of one's rear end, shoulders and/or bank account.