unclpaully

I can't echo the disappointment enough.

hans

"That said, we have great appreciation for the transparency this information offered."

Sorry but your actions make this statement ludicrous.

waxearwings

I can't possibly imagine how this is a positive development, or what 'better way' UA will find to display this info.

I suspect that a consequence of removing this information will be much longer and more frustrating call times to the premier desk, particularly during IRROPS. Those of us who fly the most are generally more adept at looking up alternatives for our particular routes and it is generally much faster to peruse the inventory info and relay that to the agents than wait for them to do it all on their own. This all devalues one of my favorite elite benefits, the SDC, quite a bit, as it takes away any advance planning possibility.

Finally, while I do really appreciate UA at least communicating and giving us fair warning about this (Delta would never do this in a million years), I call BS on the whole "room for this information to be misinterpreted" by novice flyers explanation. Seems to me that this info is being scraped and used in a way that UA would like to control and monetize. Potentially understandable (but short sighted) from a business perspective, but please don't pretend this somehow benefits customers.

bseller

+10000

If ANYTHING could get me to cease flying UA entirely, this is it. Booooooooo!!!


Dave

sal2009

yet another bad move by united to alienate its best customers.......

yet another reason why i choose american over united when the fares are within $50 of one another....and honestly, united's fares recently have been way overpriced relative to the other airlines.

I used to like united.....no longer.

oopsz

Ding ding ding! We have a winner, folks.

cfischer

:td :

What a terrible decision. Might be the last straw to move my business elsewhere.

GBadger

Ouch -- I too use this information with EVERY SINGLE FLIGHT I BOOK. Now, I have no idea which of the potential 30 connection options to Europe may have availability for upgrades. The "upgrade lottery" has just become even more difficult to predict.

Eanie, meanie, minie, DOH!

Antipode

Another way this information was really helpful was on complex itineraries, especially those with stopovers, being able to look up availability on individual legs made it much easier to piece together an itinerary. I could legitimately see not having this available leading me to not book a ticket because it's too difficult to find something that I want.

sal2009

maybe we should all do a DOT complaint about this......if anything...it will get their complaints numbers up compared to the rest of the airlines (they definately don't want that)....they clearly don't care about us (just their profits) so let's all complain!

bmvaughn

Poor use of that complaint system.

Red_Rob

This feature has saved me literally hours on the phone with a GS customer service rep every month. I often book complex iteneraries with seperate reservations including paid & reward (paying for my ticket and using miles for another). For example I just booked a 6 segment Europe vacation, paid business class for me, and for my wife a combination of X+R & I+ON. I knew exactly which flights, and exactly what the inventory and it still took about an hour on the phone to book. This would have been many many calls to try and do without the feature (so much so I would have likely given up and just used miles & flown a partner airline for both of us).

Not only does this information help me self serve, and drive purchase decisions (to buy or not to buy), but it also helps me with flight selection. When flying domestically I will often book a less convienient time for greater upgrade odds. I suspect this is in UA's best interest (i.e. I pay the same price for a less popular route).

This is something that I personally use every day, and losing it will be a real pain.

EmailKid

Given how hard it is to find R inventory this is a TERRIBLE decision.

I could go on, my cancelled PVG-SFO, THREE hour delays and arriving after 2 a.m. .....

EmailKid

id_est

Yeah, this means I'll be calling in as part of my reservation process to ascertain availability of R/RN seats. I will not expect to be charged for this as I will consider it a failure of the web reservation offering.

TIMOS

Shannon

This is a terrible move.

Your best customers - elites - use this function of the website daily. How will we now gain access to this info?

Shannon, "transparency" is a word that no one hear associates with your airline anymore. United's upgrade process is anything but transparent. It's smoke and mirrors. Why do you say on one hand United understands how important this transparency is and that UA is commited to immproving it, and at the same time remove a feature of .com that helped make at least SOME of the process transparent?

You've had 6 months since 3/3. Why can't this new way be rolled out before you completely remove the old way.

You guys at United just don't get it do you