If I were CEO of United...
Oct 10, 2012, 8:19 am
#61
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: UA 1K, AA Exec Plat, Starwood, Hilton Honors, Choice
Posts: 29
This is another reason I've migrated from UA to AA. I can't use miles for membership to the club. Instead, they want to corral me into a credit card.
No and goodbye.
(Plus, the Admiral's Club is superior to the United "Club" and I can get through security with a pass to meet people in the club.
No and goodbye.
(Plus, the Admiral's Club is superior to the United "Club" and I can get through security with a pass to meet people in the club.
Pay? Why can't UA provide clubs that are at least comparable to the ones AC, LH, etc provide their frequent travelers for free?
The whole point of the club is to be a relatively cheap benefit to provide to encourage frequent travelers to fly your airline. Treating it as a profit centre and providing the minimum service you can get away with means giving up sales of actual airline tickets which is presumably where an airline is hoping to make most of its money.
The whole point of the club is to be a relatively cheap benefit to provide to encourage frequent travelers to fly your airline. Treating it as a profit centre and providing the minimum service you can get away with means giving up sales of actual airline tickets which is presumably where an airline is hoping to make most of its money.
Oct 11, 2012, 9:48 pm
#62
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Sunny SYDNEY!
Programs: UA Million Miler. (1.9M) Virgin Platinum. HH Diamond + SPG Gold
Posts: 32,330
If the Board were smart they'd ask for the SAME kid of stats.
My feeling it is will be down 10-20% over last year and if so that is a train wreck right there - all of Smisek's making.
As a decade long, once truly loyal 1K, I have not booked a UA revenue flight for 10 months, and am not alone.
Filling up planes with once a year Priceline Kettles, on $90 fares is NOT the way to profit, for a full service global airline.
It works for Southwest and Easyjet, but they do not offer 3 cabin 747/77s services globally.
Smisek read the LCC book .. but applied the logic to the wrong airline.
.
Oct 11, 2012, 10:40 pm
#64
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP, DL Silver, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, HHonor Gold, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 352
I'd like to see this as I have 13 intl trips, mostly on J, next year.
Personally I think United should dump the entire elite structure and go to 4 levels based on spend. Something like.
$5K - Silver
$15K - Gold
$30K - Platinum
$75K - Global Services
I know most people would hate this but it would reduce the number of elites dramatically, especially at the high levels.
Having a specific target for GS may incent people to try and get to it. Today it is a stupid lottery that I will not waste my time even trying to achieve. 75K is high enough that very few people will get there buying cheap tickets.
Complementary upgrades should only be for Platinum and GS and should be for all fares. Buy-ups should only be offered after Platinums and GS have been upgraded.
$5K - Silver
$15K - Gold
$30K - Platinum
$75K - Global Services
I know most people would hate this but it would reduce the number of elites dramatically, especially at the high levels.
Having a specific target for GS may incent people to try and get to it. Today it is a stupid lottery that I will not waste my time even trying to achieve. 75K is high enough that very few people will get there buying cheap tickets.
Complementary upgrades should only be for Platinum and GS and should be for all fares. Buy-ups should only be offered after Platinums and GS have been upgraded.
Oct 11, 2012, 10:56 pm
#65
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,877
I agree with getting rid of free upgrades. Nowhere else in the world do they give away upgrades like candy to so-called "elites" who do all their travel on cheapo domestic fares. This pretty much encourages airlines to take away everything "premium" about the service other than the seat itself.
Oct 11, 2012, 11:13 pm
#66
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: 5280 feet
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 674
Ditch the 737's and their narrow, horribly designed seats for the roomier Airbuses. A320neo?
Make customer service (from top to bottom) a top priority. Anyone who can't offer service with a smile all day, every day should be let go.
Make United Clubs as nice as any Senator lounge. If you can't beat the cattle car hauler of Germany, what good are you anyway?
Stop giving away "Premier Access" like it was candy. If everyone gets to be Premier, then it really isn't Premier anymore.
Redesign the logo and repaint the airplanes something other than that boring beige. I don't give a crap about the tulip, but the current design theme is horribly beige and boring and too much suggests a CO takeover of UAL. Fer cryin' out loud, be bold! Something new!
Fleet upgrades in general - sure the planes are functional, but some of the 757's are starting to look as old as a grandmother's kitchen. Here's a hint -- airplanes should not have a patina on them, inside or outside.
Let the current 747-400's go, and either upgrade to the 747-8 or go a different way (777-300). The 747's are really showing wear and breakdown, and I can't image they have much efficiency advantage anymore. If you stick with the 747-400's, upgrade the coach interior, which is an abysmal product.
Wind down CLE completely. Consider nuking EWR as a hub (or maybe just saving it as a TATL hub with some feeders from key cities). Upgrade the horrific IAD C/D terminals. Add more international flights to DEN (e.g, LHR, FRA). Ok, that last one is selfish.....
Get ready to start designing the next generation C and F interiors. Stay ahead of the game, or the next generation C and F classes will come out and the current seating at UA will look as dated as the barcaloungers do now.
When you do redesign the C and F classes, ditch the 2-4-2 seating scheme, which is bad in the 747 and (in the narrower 777 seats) downright criminal for a supposed premium product. 2-2-2 or at worst 2-3-2. It's crazy that a 767 C experience is light years ahead of a 777 or 747 C experience (which is backwards -- if not equal, the flagship 747 and 777 aircraft should be the better experience).
Figure out how to implement these kinds of changes quickly, instead of (say) dragging out 777 IPTE conversion for 3 years.
Get rid of those CRT's on the 757's. Good grief, can it really be that expensive to retrofit to LCD screens? They must weigh less, and they certainly look and perform better. Oh and scrub the fleet's A319/320's for off color or malfunctioning LCD's.
Revamp the 767's overhead bins, which are awfuly tiny.
Make customer service (from top to bottom) a top priority. Anyone who can't offer service with a smile all day, every day should be let go.
Make United Clubs as nice as any Senator lounge. If you can't beat the cattle car hauler of Germany, what good are you anyway?
Stop giving away "Premier Access" like it was candy. If everyone gets to be Premier, then it really isn't Premier anymore.
Redesign the logo and repaint the airplanes something other than that boring beige. I don't give a crap about the tulip, but the current design theme is horribly beige and boring and too much suggests a CO takeover of UAL. Fer cryin' out loud, be bold! Something new!
Fleet upgrades in general - sure the planes are functional, but some of the 757's are starting to look as old as a grandmother's kitchen. Here's a hint -- airplanes should not have a patina on them, inside or outside.
Let the current 747-400's go, and either upgrade to the 747-8 or go a different way (777-300). The 747's are really showing wear and breakdown, and I can't image they have much efficiency advantage anymore. If you stick with the 747-400's, upgrade the coach interior, which is an abysmal product.
Wind down CLE completely. Consider nuking EWR as a hub (or maybe just saving it as a TATL hub with some feeders from key cities). Upgrade the horrific IAD C/D terminals. Add more international flights to DEN (e.g, LHR, FRA). Ok, that last one is selfish.....
Get ready to start designing the next generation C and F interiors. Stay ahead of the game, or the next generation C and F classes will come out and the current seating at UA will look as dated as the barcaloungers do now.
When you do redesign the C and F classes, ditch the 2-4-2 seating scheme, which is bad in the 747 and (in the narrower 777 seats) downright criminal for a supposed premium product. 2-2-2 or at worst 2-3-2. It's crazy that a 767 C experience is light years ahead of a 777 or 747 C experience (which is backwards -- if not equal, the flagship 747 and 777 aircraft should be the better experience).
Figure out how to implement these kinds of changes quickly, instead of (say) dragging out 777 IPTE conversion for 3 years.
Get rid of those CRT's on the 757's. Good grief, can it really be that expensive to retrofit to LCD screens? They must weigh less, and they certainly look and perform better. Oh and scrub the fleet's A319/320's for off color or malfunctioning LCD's.
Revamp the 767's overhead bins, which are awfuly tiny.
Oct 11, 2012, 11:21 pm
#67
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,645
Personally I think United should dump the entire elite structure and go to 4 levels based on spend. Something like.
$5K - Silver
$15K - Gold
$30K - Platinum
$75K - Global Services
I know most people would hate this but it would reduce the number of elites dramatically, especially at the high levels.
Having a specific target for GS may incent people to try and get to it. Today it is a stupid lottery that I will not waste my time even trying to achieve. 75K is high enough that very few people will get there buying cheap tickets.
Complementary upgrades should only be for Platinum and GS and should be for all fares. Buy-ups should only be offered after Platinums and GS have been upgraded.
$5K - Silver
$15K - Gold
$30K - Platinum
$75K - Global Services
I know most people would hate this but it would reduce the number of elites dramatically, especially at the high levels.
Having a specific target for GS may incent people to try and get to it. Today it is a stupid lottery that I will not waste my time even trying to achieve. 75K is high enough that very few people will get there buying cheap tickets.
Complementary upgrades should only be for Platinum and GS and should be for all fares. Buy-ups should only be offered after Platinums and GS have been upgraded.
100K of cheap miles is not as good as 100K of expensive miles.
Similarly, $15K of spend on cheap fares is not the same as $15K of spend on J seats.
If the goal is to reward profitability, then I'd think they'd want to look at CPM for each tier of miles. So, you flew 25,000 miles with a CPM > x - it means you pass the threshold for being a desirable customer, else, no upgrades for you. Etc.
It seems to me, they ultimately want to look at marginal contribution to profit. If you look at CPM and break that into tiers, then don't you end up segmenting customers on marginal profit contribution?
I beat them at their own game this year. I got the card, got free membership, and have no intention of using the card. It worked for this year, anyway. Would have been happy to pay with miles as I had in the past.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Oct 11, 2012 at 11:27 pm Reason: merge
Oct 12, 2012, 4:19 am
#69
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: AADULtArer
Posts: 5,683
1 eliminate reclining seats in Economy. Sit up like an adult, if you have to recline in a chair to be comfortable, retire and stay home
2 eliminate food and beverage under 8 hours flight time. Get me where I need to go and leave me to feed myself. Let FA focus on safety and operations instead of nostalgic services of past history.
3. Reward employees for positive customer feedback while stop appeasing the "I'm a loyal customer because I flew you 25 times last year" crowd. Money and margin are all that counts, just like my business...
4 Jeff, you don't belong on TV, agreed....
:-)
2 eliminate food and beverage under 8 hours flight time. Get me where I need to go and leave me to feed myself. Let FA focus on safety and operations instead of nostalgic services of past history.
3. Reward employees for positive customer feedback while stop appeasing the "I'm a loyal customer because I flew you 25 times last year" crowd. Money and margin are all that counts, just like my business...
4 Jeff, you don't belong on TV, agreed....
:-)
Oct 12, 2012, 5:22 am
#70
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,582
Ditch the 737's and their narrow, horribly designed seats for the roomier Airbuses. A320neo?
Make customer service (from top to bottom) a top priority. Anyone who can't offer service with a smile all day, every day should be let go.
Make United Clubs as nice as any Senator lounge. If you can't beat the cattle car hauler of Germany, what good are you anyway?
Stop giving away "Premier Access" like it was candy. If everyone gets to be Premier, then it really isn't Premier anymore.
Redesign the logo and repaint the airplanes something other than that boring beige. I don't give a crap about the tulip, but the current design theme is horribly beige and boring and too much suggests a CO takeover of UAL. Fer cryin' out loud, be bold! Something new!
Fleet upgrades in general - sure the planes are functional, but some of the 757's are starting to look as old as a grandmother's kitchen. Here's a hint -- airplanes should not have a patina on them, inside or outside.
Let the current 747-400's go, and either upgrade to the 747-8 or go a different way (777-300). The 747's are really showing wear and breakdown, and I can't image they have much efficiency advantage anymore. If you stick with the 747-400's, upgrade the coach interior, which is an abysmal product.
Wind down CLE completely. Consider nuking EWR as a hub (or maybe just saving it as a TATL hub with some feeders from key cities). Upgrade the horrific IAD C/D terminals. Add more international flights to DEN (e.g, LHR, FRA). Ok, that last one is selfish.....
Get ready to start designing the next generation C and F interiors. Stay ahead of the game, or the next generation C and F classes will come out and the current seating at UA will look as dated as the barcaloungers do now.
When you do redesign the C and F classes, ditch the 2-4-2 seating scheme, which is bad in the 747 and (in the narrower 777 seats) downright criminal for a supposed premium product. 2-2-2 or at worst 2-3-2. It's crazy that a 767 C experience is light years ahead of a 777 or 747 C experience (which is backwards -- if not equal, the flagship 747 and 777 aircraft should be the better experience).
Figure out how to implement these kinds of changes quickly, instead of (say) dragging out 777 IPTE conversion for 3 years.
Get rid of those CRT's on the 757's. Good grief, can it really be that expensive to retrofit to LCD screens? They must weigh less, and they certainly look and perform better. Oh and scrub the fleet's A319/320's for off color or malfunctioning LCD's.
Revamp the 767's overhead bins, which are awfuly tiny.
Make customer service (from top to bottom) a top priority. Anyone who can't offer service with a smile all day, every day should be let go.
Make United Clubs as nice as any Senator lounge. If you can't beat the cattle car hauler of Germany, what good are you anyway?
Stop giving away "Premier Access" like it was candy. If everyone gets to be Premier, then it really isn't Premier anymore.
Redesign the logo and repaint the airplanes something other than that boring beige. I don't give a crap about the tulip, but the current design theme is horribly beige and boring and too much suggests a CO takeover of UAL. Fer cryin' out loud, be bold! Something new!
Fleet upgrades in general - sure the planes are functional, but some of the 757's are starting to look as old as a grandmother's kitchen. Here's a hint -- airplanes should not have a patina on them, inside or outside.
Let the current 747-400's go, and either upgrade to the 747-8 or go a different way (777-300). The 747's are really showing wear and breakdown, and I can't image they have much efficiency advantage anymore. If you stick with the 747-400's, upgrade the coach interior, which is an abysmal product.
Wind down CLE completely. Consider nuking EWR as a hub (or maybe just saving it as a TATL hub with some feeders from key cities). Upgrade the horrific IAD C/D terminals. Add more international flights to DEN (e.g, LHR, FRA). Ok, that last one is selfish.....
Get ready to start designing the next generation C and F interiors. Stay ahead of the game, or the next generation C and F classes will come out and the current seating at UA will look as dated as the barcaloungers do now.
When you do redesign the C and F classes, ditch the 2-4-2 seating scheme, which is bad in the 747 and (in the narrower 777 seats) downright criminal for a supposed premium product. 2-2-2 or at worst 2-3-2. It's crazy that a 767 C experience is light years ahead of a 777 or 747 C experience (which is backwards -- if not equal, the flagship 747 and 777 aircraft should be the better experience).
Figure out how to implement these kinds of changes quickly, instead of (say) dragging out 777 IPTE conversion for 3 years.
Get rid of those CRT's on the 757's. Good grief, can it really be that expensive to retrofit to LCD screens? They must weigh less, and they certainly look and perform better. Oh and scrub the fleet's A319/320's for off color or malfunctioning LCD's.
Revamp the 767's overhead bins, which are awfuly tiny.
Oct 12, 2012, 7:14 am
#71
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 5,825
If you were CEO, that means Smisek would not be the CEO.
So, we'd get to see you in the pre-flight videos...
And have to start a whole new thread commenting on your performance!
Oct 12, 2012, 8:22 am
#72
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2012
Programs: US CP ; LH FTL ; *G
Posts: 1,630
To all these people complaining about 'free' upgrades - if you think that making the upgrades not free will somehow fix everything, you must live in a fantasy world.
The main problem in corporate America is excessive executive compensation and lack of accountability, so the company survives and does well only by chance - if it was lucky to get good management (think Steve Jobs & Apple).
Domestic carriers successfully utilize all upgrade models - 'free' upgrades (US), paid upgrades (AA, B6), or no upgrades (WN). So, UA policy on upgrades, whatever that policy is, is not the problem. Making a whole lot of poor decisions is the problem.
Inability to provide departures and arrivals according to the published schedule is the problem. Promising one thing (complimentary upgrades) and then doing another (selling ToDs) is the problem. Making silly videos instead of using CEO's time to do actual work a CEO is supposed to do is the problem. Lack of transparency and accountability is the problem.
The main problem in corporate America is excessive executive compensation and lack of accountability, so the company survives and does well only by chance - if it was lucky to get good management (think Steve Jobs & Apple).
Domestic carriers successfully utilize all upgrade models - 'free' upgrades (US), paid upgrades (AA, B6), or no upgrades (WN). So, UA policy on upgrades, whatever that policy is, is not the problem. Making a whole lot of poor decisions is the problem.
Inability to provide departures and arrivals according to the published schedule is the problem. Promising one thing (complimentary upgrades) and then doing another (selling ToDs) is the problem. Making silly videos instead of using CEO's time to do actual work a CEO is supposed to do is the problem. Lack of transparency and accountability is the problem.
Oct 12, 2012, 9:09 am
#73
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SEA
Posts: 12,485
An inside source has told me the number of 1Ks is up in 2012. They wouldn't give a percentage.
Oct 12, 2012, 11:09 am
#75
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,601
Considering two airlines merged programs, I would be shocked if the numbers weren't up, and significantly. The real story will be 2013 but more likely 2014, when they see not only how many 1Ks stick around, but how many actually fly enough to re-qualify.