FlyWorld

Carnage in revenue is the only hope for things to improve. If the financial metrics are good, then this is what the future is going to look like. I'm with you.

dgcpaphd

In the second paragraph of your post you wrote "I admit I probably overestimated the short-term impact of all this as a lot of travel was already booked for Q2. However lots of biz travel is still last minute, and if that traffic went to AA and others, it will be seen in Q2."

You might not be incorrect or premature. This is because there is another financial statement, other than the income statement, that will disclose whether there is a major decline in cash. The cash measurement statement is called the "Statement of Cash Flows" and is part of the overall financial statements.

Although there may have been a lot of business travel previously booked, which will be matched with income and expenses during the second quarter, the Statement of Cash Flows shows money coming in and money going out and beginning cash and ending cash.

If the ending cash balance at 6/30/2012 is markedly less than the beginning cash at 3/31/2012, there is a good chance that the overall behavior of the new UA management had a negative effect on the second quarter and on the company as a whole.

Clearly, there are a lot of unhappy elites and many have abandoned UA because of the shabby treatment of loyal elites, not even counting the condescending statement made by John Rainey when he gave that "regrettable" speech in May of this year.

The second quarter UA financial statements will be available on line about the middle of July at this site:

http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed...&hidefilings=0

After you get to the site, you will see that it is the United Continental Holdings, Inc page that shows all SEC filings by United.

Scroll down until you see the 10Q. Click on that item in the portion that says "Inter Active data." Next click on Financial Statements, then click on Statement of Cash Flows. You will be able to see components of cash in and cash out.

This is a public document and the public is allowed to view the filings of pubic companies.

As is sometimes said, "the proof is in the pudding." In this instance, the proof will be in the Statement of Cash Flows for the quarter ended 6/30/2012 and how it was or was not affected by the new UA management's contempt for over entitled elites.
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DCEsquire

+1

I haven't seen UA Insider on here in months. Since this (so stated) isn't a UA employee, maybe the better question is does s/he have any relationship with UA where renumeration directly or indirectly is involved. Given the tone I hope not otherwise I would never fly another mile on UA again, even if I had to do 3 connections iAd-sfo

tom911

They posted in this very thread on May 21. LINK

DCEsquire

Thanks for the link! My bad. Let's call it about a month ago. I forgot. I think it was largely criticized as major spin if you see the follow up. I do appreciate the reminder however.

ozstamps

You mean the staffer who assured everyone in March the long phone waits were 'temporary glitches" and that kettles were NOT being sold upgrades ahead of over-entitled Elites clearing using their now worthless SWUs? THAT staffer?

Well 2 posts in 3 weeks shows they are too embarrassed to show their face here on FT after howling fibs like the above.

I spent 2½ hours last week 150 minutes - I swear this is true - on the phone to UA re a pretty simple and flexible in dates and routing award booking, that they could not do in the end. Total waste of both our time and their 800 long distance call.

Then 1½ hours the next day to ADD a city to an existing award. At the end of that 90 minutes the staffer said "computer is not allowing it".

I asked why - "too many MPM, wrong routing, too many segments - we can address all of those?"

The answer was - 'we do not know". This was the alleged 1K elite line. So another wasted call - totally.

Half these waits were while my agent was talking to other agents. Seems like no-one in there has a clue these days.

I am sure Aeroflot has better systems than the new UA - it is a farce.

This over-entitled 11 year Million Miler 1K is burning miles like there is no tomorrow, before they double the redemption rates as the latest 'enhancement" we never asked for.

Q2 and Q3 results will be a big wake up call for these carpet baggers.

By Q1 2013 half their top Elites from Q1 2012 will have jumped ship I am guessing. Brilliant race to the bottom business plan.

Fill the planes with $100 a seat Kettles and then ask "where did we go wrong?"

.

Clarkcc1

Again... love it.

Wondering if the ship at AA is getting full... while I have been 100% on upgrades so far, my SFO-LAX-ORD-SFO MR on Saturday I will likely be sitting in coach most of the time. At least I get an exit row, free drink and snack ^

I have talked to other sickened/fed-up 'ex-over-entitled-UA-elites' on AA flights recently so I cannot fathom how this won't be noticed in the upcoming revenue #s. EVEN if 2Q, 3Q don't seem that far off, they won't be able to command the extra revenue from kettles after they sit in F once or twice and us ex-multi-flights-per-month fliers have totally or nearly abandoned the airline. And if you lose the inter-continental premium cabin dollars too - you're done, senior! No mas United. No, gracias SMI/J, adios :P

stopdiabetes

Well, everyone has their opinions and experiences good and bad, but in my travel from EWR to DEL, from IAH to EWR and PHL, and DEN to LAX this year, the service has been good, and I have scored upgrades most of the time (and I am not GS), and have had exit row seating the remainder of the time, and have had few problems on the phone. This does not mean everybody has such good experiences, but my sense, from sitting up front with GS folks and other "elites", that they have not been experiencing the nightmares. While there's no excuse for such nightmares, and no law against victims using this board to complain, it is not the rule. There are those who are, quite frankly, been treated pretty well, when considering that two large and different carriers merged.

bseller

I am led to believe from several indications that you are pmCO flyer.
If I'm right, then many good things happened to you as a result of the takeover of UA. You got SWUs. You can earn Confimed upgrades. Your route network expanded nicely.
I'm glad that you were able to get ExitRows, although, in truth that's really not much of a biggie for anyone higher than Gold who books a bit forward. Is it now??
Perhaps you've not had problems on the phone, because you're simply USED TO the phone service pmCO provided?
I look at your routes that you chose to share with us and I note that the liklihood of these pax with whom you've been seated being pmCO flyers is extraordinarily high. See above.
Many, many CO flyers share your feelings completely. VERY VERY few of the UA elites share them at all. This, sadly, was NOT a merger, it was a takeover of United by a large, fortress-hubbed, regional carrier.

Dave

sxf24

This is an interesting perspective that is frequently repeated on the forum. Regardless of its validity, it is saddening that certain people think so much of themselves and/or so little of others.

dgcpaphd

When all the facts and circumstances are considered, there is no doubt that the last sentence shown above is true.
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bseller

I agree, it is often seen here. I genuinely wish that it weren't - but that would be a suspension of disbelief, IMO.
Please tell me - to WHOM do you refer?
Dave

UA-NYC

Many of us fly regularly and have been impacted negatively by the changes.

Perhaps your opinion and situation are *different*.

ibuyyoufly

It's great to hear story's like this, in fact refreshing. It shows there's hope.

Now if they could fix many of the exceptions to the rule, and there might be many, we'd have ourselves an airline. Coupled with that however, they need to be much more transparent with how the programs are supposed to be working. Until then, we only have what's published to work from.

COMMUNICATION is key. For employees to be better informed/trained and customers to be more knowledgeable/fulfilled.

Mike Jacoubowsky

The reason some of this doesn't make sense here is that people equate FFPs with elite status, and the two are not all that related. The vast majority of credit card spend, and mileage redemption, occurs at the non-elite level. From the credit card company's perspective, the non-elite is likely a more attractive customer than the elite. And once you swallow that, a lot of things make sense. With the credit card companies so undeniably important to the airlines, the extent to which the FFPs are created/influenced by them becomes a very telling issue here.

Because they don't care about elites. At least not until issues become so bad that the airline's finances make it clear that change in direction is required. But aside from that, they are going to craft programs aimed towards the $$$ numbers spent flying, not the profit numbers.