Originally Posted by UA Insider (Post 19272966)

Hi Everyone,

Later this evening we’ll be making a change on united.com that will remove the ability to see the specific allocation of seat inventory made to each Fare Class (this is the Fare Class hyperlink found in the right-most column when searching for flights or viewing itinerary details). I know that this is a popular feature for many of you here – in fact, we liked it too. But, it wasn’t without issues. Specifically, for many customers who are not as familiar with the ins and outs of fare structures, there was often room for this information to be misinterpreted. It also left the door open for undesired exposure that allowed automated scripts to scrape and re-display information in ways for which it was not intended.

That said, we have great appreciation for the transparency this information offered. For example, having a better understanding of how full a flight is, along with knowing how many other customers want to upgrade on a flight, can be critical in deciding 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. We are committed to improving transparency around this. 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.

Shannon Kelly
Director, Customer Insights
United Airlines

Originally Posted by Red_Rob (Post 19276357)

I think this is about much more than upgrades. It's about dynamic pricing.

Offer one person an L fare, another a W, and yet another a B fare as the cheapest. Don't let them see that cheaper fare buckets are available.

Originally Posted by zrs70 (Post 19276460)

Folks, I posted this last night, but it probably got lost ....

WE CAN STILL KNOW IF UPGRADE INVENTORY IS THERE WITHOUT CALLING.

All we have to do is check the box saying we want a milage upgrade. If "R" space is available, the search will show it.

No, it's not nearly as good, and I am not at all happy about the change. But we should calm down from the drama that we will tie up agents for hours on the phone now.

Originally Posted by karenkay (Post 19276531)

i read the entire thread, and pretty much everything i'd want to say has been said already, and more articulately than i could, but i wanted to chime in to add my voice to the chorus expressing disapproval of the change.

several posters are asking shannon/UA questions about one thing or another relating to this change, and the most important thing to remember here is that UNITED DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. they just don't. it's a company that was elite-customer focused at one point, and it no longer is. repeat that until it soaks in, and your life will probably be better for it. shannon's just the messenger, and i hope for her sake that she's looking for another gig.

this multi-year former 1k will be gold going forward, and that's only due to my million miler status.

Originally Posted by Expert Flyer e-mail

Thank you for your email. Today United Airlines has decided to remove award and upgrade class inventory from various channels, affecting ExpertFlyer. As such, United will be removed from the list of airlines in the Award & Upgrade search tool until further notice. In addition, all Active Flight Alerts for United award or upgrade class codes will be put into the Expired state. Should the award and upgrade data become available at a later date, we will again activate those Flight Alerts.

Originally Posted by sfonorth (Post 19276562)

Not sure how this benefits UA. AA, DL and other major carriers share this information -- why would UA block this? Absolutely makes no sense, just alienates the FF. Very little incentive to book tickets with UA if we can't tell if an upgrade will clear.