If you haven't cleared they will simply say, there is none as the computer "automatically" clears people according to status, fare class, time on wait list.

I see this as being a step in the wrong direction and if they are impacted by EF/KVS then put some IT protections in place or file a lawsuit ect. If UA did a good job of displaying this information in the first place EF/KVS wouldn't be in business. Give us easy access to view R space and star alliance bookings for crying out loud.

Except, this functionality is NOT working as of this morning. I just get an error message...
If this is intentional, I'm done with UA.

Even if it is working, there is no way to know how many R seat are available. If it's just 1 on a popular route, it could easily be gone in the time you finish buying your W seat but before you try to apply the GPU, and we wouldn't even know.

What a dumb move! How about making this an option you have to turn on once you log in to your account like on the old webpage!

I just cost UA a ton of money using the 1K toll free international line to call an agent to help me look for "R" space on flights this took over an hour. I will call every time now to find "R" space and I do not care how long it takes. The agent told me I could see this online. I told her they took that away. She just responded with "ohh"

The new web pages over all sucks but there are (were) some little things like seeing the fare buckets that were nice.

Take away all the good stuff.. Dumb.

EF is no longer showing UA award and R space. Can somebody with KVS confirm whether it's working or not?

Just this week I had to call so they would manually upgrade ogg-sfo on an ogg-sfo-san itinerary. ogg-sfo was RN > 1. The agent claimed that the entire itinerary had to be upgradable. No, it was not a single flight number.

Now that there's no transparency, how do we deal with that, UA Insider?

-David

All of the above assumes that UA executive management wants to improve customer access to this info. A fairer reading is that some bean-counter realized that UA elites could use the data to extract value from their upgrade instruments, thereby "cheating" UA out of revenue it could otherwise have earned through selling cash upgrades. (Of course, thinking this way involves completely breaking the value proposition for these instruments, and thus substantially impairing the benefits the upper-elite elite levels necessary to earn them. But hey, it's free money in the short term, so go for it!)

If the truth-in-advertising laws had any teeth, they'd have to give this outfit a new name: BOHICA Airlines.

That is the way .bomb used to work. When I used a dummy award booking to see upgrade availability, I would never buy my ticket on line. I'd call the 1K desk and have the agent verify that I could indeed get two upgrades confirmed at purchase.

The more I think about it, the more this sounds like a move against EF and KVS.

In Shannon's original post, she said that when the fare buckets were turned off, there would be at least one new feature added. I can't see it - has anyone else noticed anything new?

The explanation is so weak, but what's most ridiculous is removing the feature before adding the new mechanism.

If the concern was actually novice confusion or abuse, it would be simple to require valid customer login/password to see fare class and limit the number of requests.

It's not. It still shows the flights but nothing in the availability column - just empty space.

I'd use the tool and if there was enough upgrade space, I'd book on United, otherwise I'd take a cheaper airline (e.g., Southwest).

Now that I won't see upgrade space, I guess I'll just stick with other carriers.

In searching for interesting award space, united.com fails to show available seats on anything but simple round trips, for example, I can see BF availability on EWR-IST on Dec 27, 2012, if I do a simple r/t search, but if I try searching for multiple destinations, with the first leg as EWR-IST, it shows no availability (not even standard awards) for Dec 27.

How are we supposed to deal with that, UA Insider?

-David

Fact is, before the removal of this vital information, I WAS confused!

Confused, because I had forgotten that UA management believes knowledgeable customers are bad for business.

The only explanation of this blatantly anti-customer move is UA's belief that absent information, people will be forced to pay more money to secure an upgrade.

I won't do it , but the sad truth is the majority of the flying public will.

I'm sure they're also betting that somehow this move might pressure corporate customers to enter into new locked contracts providing for higher fare classes & more assured upgrades.

Both ways UA management wins.

Customers (especially elite) and front-line employees lose!

Maybe I'm too confused but seems to me that this negative change will only serve to increase call center times, frustrating both customers & agents.

Plus, I just don't wish to believe Shannon can be happy about spinning this and other incredulous dictates from above.

Off now to write my first ever email to Mr. Smisek lest he thinks this is a change I like

Yup, I'll be on the line tying it up for hours and hours. So will every 1k. Seems like all that agent time would cost a lot. Dumb, they should show the info for logged in 1ks at least. Call it some kind of perk.

I'm at 90k right now and have arranged a mileage run in November to vaunt over the 100k threshold for 1k. I wish I had known that UA would be removing our ability to see R inventory before booking that mileage run. Those GPUs I was looking forward to receiving now are practically useless, unless United intends to do something along the lines of American with regard to its upgrade instruments.