Agree 100%.

I am baffled at how many short-sighted decisions UA has made since 3/3. Everything is about today with no regard for tomorrow. How many times will UA shoot itself in the foot?

We'll never know as they also turned off the feature for us to see how many feet they have ;)

While I'm not defending this move, I think I understand it.

IIRC, back before 3/3, the fare bucket information available on *.bomb was only useful when you searched for award travel. Using the expert mode, you could then see which flights were most promising for an upgrade using instruments or miles/co-pay, and even then, it wasn't as detailed as what the post 3/3 site offered.

When we were moved to this site, I was frankly amazed at how transparent CO was when it came to award and upgrade availability. I loaded sbm12's greasemonkey script, and was quite happy with how much easier it was to see which flight was upgradeable. That said, I kind of wondered why United was so transparent with this data.

IF some sort of site enhancement accompanies the turn-off of the bucket availability that does in fact allow us to decide whether to pay to guarantee a seat immediately, use mileage to upgrade, hold out to see if a space-available upgrade will clear or select another flight all together, this won't be that bad of a decision.

OTOH, if the process becomes completely opaque, then I agree that the value of the GPU/RPU becomes next to worthless.

Delta had a good head start in decimating their loyalty program and making highly customer-unfriendly decisions - looks like UA is putting on the afterburners trying to catch up

Could we collectively come up with actions that all participate in to send UA a message that this is not ok? Maybe all sign a letter/email, all call customer service, etc.

More like afterburners on a lead balloon!

O how I wish I had a cartoonist's skills!

Possibly, but unlike the good old days (when FT outrage seemed to be able to move UA back 95% of the way from an ill-conceived, boneheaded move), I don't think anyone at UA is receptive any longer. :(

Has anyone called cust service and or reserv to determine what precisely we no longer will see? Would think that a long stream of calls to the cust service lines MIGHT have impact on their decision.

Doing something like this would only be effective if they cared which is doubtful. Instead, just buy a ticket on the competition...an expensive one--preferably not in discounted fare classes--even better if it is international.... and send it to them, attributing it to this move. This is something that they Might listen to.

NRSA, etc. don't use far bucket availability to judge flights.

Just sent a note to GS
 

I just sent off an email to Global Services to let them know how disappointed I am with this decision. I ask that everyone send off a note to customer service as well (1Kvoice, etc).

Shannon, I can't believe the decision makers had you release a statement that is so absurd. I have been able to adapt to most of the changes since 3/3 but this is one that will seriously have me reconsider my choice of airline. I would rather drive out to JFK any day and fly AA. Wow.

Email to Jeff and 1Kvoice sent.

United - please reconsider. This change is terribly customer unfriendly.

At the minimum you should provide a way for us to see on the website if instrument-supported upgrade space is available for instant clearing. This type of information "puts the customer in control" which is a publicly stated objective for the new United according to the on-board welcome video.

Are you now stating that you want the customer to feel helpless and not in control of the travel experience? Will we be seeing a new video to reflect this change?

But, instead of simply exposing fare class inventory (which is quite confusing to most customers), we are working on better ways to share this more meaningful information. You’ll see one new feature added with this release and even more changes that work toward this effort in future releases.


So re-reading UA insider's release--not sure what Shannon means by "one new feature added" ? Wonder if this is a way to toggle on/off expert mode? But reading the rest of the release, I'm not overly optimistic.

Another idea is to call their res lines and ask if an upgrade and/or award is available for "this flight? What about this one? Or this one? Can I get an award on this date? What about in E+? Business? ...... Sorry to take up so much of your time but I used to be able to see this on your site."

The only thing they understand is cost and revenue. Tie up their res lines and it means more CS hours and potential loss of revenue as customers have a harder time getting through to book a tix.