Why did United move to CO SHARES?
Apr 6, 2012, 12:08 am
#151
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: What I write is my opinion alone..don't read into it anything not written.
Posts: 9,686
#1 reason they switched from Fastair to Shares
Becuase I already was using the FT screen name of "fastair" and no one wanted to use the handle of "Shares", so it is still open for UA to use. They couldn't afford the price I was asking to give up my name so that UA could use it. In retrospect, I should have let them have it for free. 
Apr 6, 2012, 2:37 am
#154
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Menlo Park, CA, USA
Programs: UA: 1K, HH: Diamond
Posts: 1,330
Becuase I already was using the FT screen name of "fastair" and no one wanted to use the handle of "Shares", so it is still open for UA to use. They couldn't afford the price I was asking to give up my name so that UA could use it. In retrospect, I should have let them have it for free.
Apr 6, 2012, 9:33 am
#156
Moderator: Smoking Lounge; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: SFO
Programs: Lifetime (for now) Gold MM, HH Gold, Giving Tootsie Pops to UA employees, & a retired hockey goalie
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Becuase I already was using the FT screen name of "fastair" and no one wanted to use the handle of "Shares", so it is still open for UA to use. They couldn't afford the price I was asking to give up my name so that UA could use it. In retrospect, I should have let them have it for free.
Apr 6, 2012, 10:14 am
#157
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: DEN
Programs: UA Gold-MM, AA Gold-MM, F9-Silver, Hyatt Something, Marriott Gold, IHG Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,393
Becuase I already was using the FT screen name of "fastair" and no one wanted to use the handle of "Shares", so it is still open for UA to use. They couldn't afford the price I was asking to give up my name so that UA could use it. In retrospect, I should have let them have it for free.
The irony is that it took me YEARS to learn the origin of your handle. Fastair simply worked, so there was no need to have thread after thread of discussion of it.
Soon, however, even Kettles will know what SHARES is!
Apr 6, 2012, 4:00 pm
#158
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: LAX and LHR. UA lifetime Gold 1.9MM 1K , DL Gold Medallion, HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold, Avis President's Club
Posts: 3,592
Originally Posted by 1P
Actually, no, it didn't. It would list many of the lowest price options, but only the ones it wanted to list — often combinations with absurdly long layovers (as much as 11 hours). That was the infuriating thing about it. You knew that there were other options out there, but you could only find them on a schedule+price search.
I take it you never had the experience of looking for SWU-upgradeable fares on the old website. The only way to do this was by price, not schedule, since searching by schedule would invariably give you an itinerary with a booking class ineligible for the upgrade.
Searching by fare would give you the fare classes you wanted, but with ridiculous itineraries, such as arriving at ORD at, say, 10:30am and connecting on to a flight leaving at 9:30pm. Very frustrating if you already knew (from searching by schedule) that there were connecting flights at, say, 11:55am, 2:30pm, 4:17pm and 6:20pm with available qualifying fares — but not as a pair. Happened to me a gazillion times.
It was better to get on the phone to an agent than going through all that stuff.
Apr 6, 2012, 5:36 pm
#159
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 73
Originally Posted by WSJ
One of the CIO’s main jobs is getting a handle on myriad IT systems that are in play in a complex organization, such as an airline. Halbert’s major tech decisions at United, leading up to the merger, were made across a few broad portfolios: customer, revenue management (which prices tickets), and airline operations.
Six months before the merger was signed, Halbert led a “discovery team” which came up with a rough idea of which systems would be the best to keep from each company. Continental’s customer-facing systems were considered the better of the two, because they allowed flyers to make reservations and pick seat assignments on mobile devices.
“We were two years into our modernization program and they were 10 years in,” Halbert said.
Six months before the merger was signed, Halbert led a “discovery team” which came up with a rough idea of which systems would be the best to keep from each company. Continental’s customer-facing systems were considered the better of the two, because they allowed flyers to make reservations and pick seat assignments on mobile devices.
“We were two years into our modernization program and they were 10 years in,” Halbert said.
Apr 7, 2012, 12:56 am
#161
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Menlo Park, CA, USA
Programs: UA: 1K, HH: Diamond
Posts: 1,330
GUI development is, at most companies, done with a different group of engineers than mainframes, so I'm not sure it's any further behind because of integration issues.
C'mon It's Only Been Six Weeks
Apr 24, 2012, 1:30 pm
#165
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: SFO/JFK/MGA
Programs: UA 1P MM, AA-PP, AS, DL, HH G, SPG Gold, TA nada
Posts: 2,043
Was at the RCC, err United Club at SFO the other day. Noticed on andriod app that we were upgraded. Went to one of 4 Club agents (not the admitance ones) and asked to have our new bp's printed. 5 minutes later and alot of typing said the gate can only do it and she said it was a SHARES problem. Poor lady had a huge Costco size bottle of Motrin on her desk. Pathetic is the word all right.