FlyerTalk Forums - "Expert Mode" Changes

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- - "Expert Mode" Changes (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1385358-expert-mode-changes.html)

The information on United.com has certainly reduced my usage of EF lately, but this change certainly shows why my EF subscription is necessary... :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by northpole999 (Post 19275329)

Yes, other airlines don't have it. But it is effectively available to the public in that all travel agents can see it as well.

Exactly. The fare bucket listings make GDS access less necessary.

I'll even provide you guys with the code!!

SQL Code to alter table

Code:

 ALTER TABLE UserProfiles

ADD ExpertModeEnabled BIT NOT NULL 

DEFAULT 0

Checkbox on profile page

Code:

<aspnet:checkbox id="chkEnableExpertMode" checked="false" text="Enable Expert Mode?" runat="server"/>

Logic on reservation page

Code:

Dim UserProfile as new UserProfile(cookies("OnePassNumber"))

If UserProfile.ExpertModeEnabled = True then

farebucketpanel.visible = true

else

farebucketpanel.visible = false

end if

That took me 3 minutes. Please tell me how this isn't possible...

Quote:

Originally Posted by blug (Post 19275274)

Kudos to you for remaining calm and professional after so many rude replies which are classic examples of over-entitled elites. No other airline (to my knowledge) ever offered this feature and you don't see their elite members rant like this.

AA currently awards EXPs 8 SWUs with no W-fare lottery and has a fairly straightforward, sensible domestic upgrade policy. Guess which airline has been aggressively chasing the UA "over-entitleds" lately?

No question, Shannon has a tough job. It's hard for any human to polish this company's [***] as of late. Most of the ongoing gripes are substantive and UA's cagey language is not reassuring.

We need fair, transparent processes in order to have any faith in the system. This change continues the pattern of selectively addressing so-called IT priorities and trending towards opacity. We're still waiting for answers on issues like these:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...t-changes.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ity-again.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...aitlisted.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ved-check.html

Why should we have blind faith in the system as it is now? Jeff himself said in one of his videos that UA should empower passengers with more self-service information. The ongoing disconnect between rhetoric and reality makes it hard to take a charitable view of UA's motives here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XLR26 (Post 19273483)

A shot in the dark here, but it would be nice to have a little more detail or explanation as to why the change is being made. Towards that end, could you please provide a few examples of how this information was being misinterpreted by customers and how this misinterpretation resulted in a negative customer experience? Same goes for the scraping. How could this information be “re-displayed” in such a way that it would have an adverse effect on UA or the customer?

Thanks.

My shot in the dark is that maybe COdbaUA doesn't want "folks like us" upgrading on cheap fares and by removing the ability for "us" to see upgrade availability, the seats will be available longer for ToD'$

Quote:

Originally Posted by iluv2fly (Post 19273604)

Just when you thought that this airline couldn't get worse and do another thing customer-unfriendly, we get this thread.

One poster said "race to the bottom" - there is no race - it's over. United has won. No contest.

Or lost as the case may be :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnitedFlyGuy (Post 19274317)

Quote:

Originally Posted by goalie (Post 19274257)

Now a question-will non-revs still be able to see fare bucket availability? Obviously for them, that is what they need to see in order to gauge their travel and if yes, why would it be available for them and not us-or is the fare bucket availability being completely turned off thus screwing both loyal customers and the employees who make the airline run?

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

Good to hear and at least one group isn't getting screwed

Quote:

Originally Posted by beltway (Post 19274802)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BingoSF (Post 19274778)

A nail in the coffin.

Actually, I think the most apt phrase is "kicking the bucket."

What bucket? ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by UA Insider (Post 19275211)

Hi Everyone,

I can certainly appreciate the feedback on this particular topic. I’ve responded to a fair number of PMs tonight and I do want to at least offer a bit of clarification here in the thread as well. I know there’s no explanation that will make the current state better for those of you here. But, at the end of the day, the way in which the information was shared was truly causing issues and confusion for an extremely broad audience. This is what drove the change. This information displays for all customers and there is no ‘expert mode’ setting as there was on the previous site. So, turning it off, as a first step, really is helping mitigate a large volume of issues that our front line co-workers and other customers are experiencing...

Shannon

What information was being shared at the end if the day, in what way was it being shared and what large volume of issues were occurring? How about telling us that as if you can come up with (imho) legitimate (n.b. legitimate) information, I for one would then believe what you're saying. I won't like it but I'll agree with it and if I may, if you do can do that, the credibility of what we're being told by our airline will go up (not a lot but it takes baby steps)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevansm (Post 19275344)

I'll even provide you guys with the code!!

SQL Code to alter table

Code:

 ALTER TABLE UserProfiles

ADD ExpertModeEnabled BIT NOT NULL 

DEFAULT 0

Checkbox on profile page

Code:

<aspnet:checkbox id="chkEnableExpertMode" checked="false" text="Enable Expert Mode?" runat="server"/>

Logic on reservation page

Code:

Dim UserProfile as new UserProfile(cookies("OnePassNumber"))

If UserProfile.ExpertModeEnabled = True then

farebucketpanel.visible = true

else

farebucketpanel.visible = false

end if

That took me 3 minutes. Please tell me how this isn't possible...

Love it! ^^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueman2 (Post 19275254)

(W)hy turn it off before you have an alternative??? ... Something just does not make sense with your explanation.

This is exactly the point and the reason so many of us are distrustful. If the issues are as you say they are, Shannon, then UA should propose a solution and not just turn things off. Otherwise this looks like nothing more than removing transparency so as to mask even further the TOD buy-ups over upgrades.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjfv19 (Post 19273124)

Somebody else made the astute claim that this is just a way to obscure CPU availability and make the purchase of TOD upgrades by elite and non-elite travelers much more popular.

^^...It's. ALL about the $$$$

I now don't see inventory on UA.com and I can't get it on KVS

Btw, is EF Award&Upgrade search no longer working? just tested and it no longer returns any results... anyone else seeing this?

EF now doesn't appear to work for me either (with booking info)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYFlyerMan (Post 19275420)

Btw, is EF Award&Upgrade search no longer working? just tested and it no longer returns any results... anyone else seeing this?

yep changes are happening united.com Fare Class hyperlinks are gone for me and KVS award/upgrade results are broken :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

looks like I'm 5 mins late

Quote:

Originally Posted by uapremier (Post 19275415)

I now don't see inventory on UA.com and I can't get it on KVS

This is a stunning decision, and has sparked my own personal epiphany.

As mentioned in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ve-booked.html thread this week I have 18 round trip revenue itineraries booked with UA. I will then need one more transcon to make 1MM. After that I seriously need to reconsider my travel priorities.

SunLover

Quote:

Originally Posted by uapremier (Post 19275424)

EF now doesn't appear to work for me either (with booking info)

Yep, it was working an hour ago, but the functionality is now gone when I do an award and upgrade search. The message is now "No availability can be found for the date and class(es) specified."

Quote:

Originally Posted by uapremier (Post 19275424)

EF now doesn't appear to work for me either (with booking info)

EF seems to show revenue classes but not award.

I am, like all the others, disappointed with this decision. United always had an advantage over others in the way that information was displayed. Transparency is always a good thing, and if displaying the fare classes is causing too many problems, why not explain how to use them somewhere instead? I would like to propose a couple of ideas:

1. Have a basic disclosure explaining how to use Expert Mode before a user can enable it. It would have to explain such things like how even if a fare is available, certain O&Ds don't book into it. It could also explain how CPUs don't cycle with R/RN inventory.

2. Maybe allow an expert mode to show just the award/upgrade inventories. This would at least help the MP members to simply see if space is available without a full-on dummy search.

3. Just fix the problems instead of taking away transparency. Its a stretch, but why not have CPUs just trace to a completely different bucket intsead of R/RN?? That will probably rid a lot of phone lines of questions about "Why is my CPU not cleared if there is R/RN??"

Just my two cents :-D