And this is what really confuses me. People like us are supposedly who drive a disproportionate amount of UA's profit. Yet they consistently treat us like we are either stupid (come on - 'confused customers' rationale is BS) or are a nuisance.

The big deal with this is that for waitlisted upgrades, that means doing award searches repeatedly and frequently to see if they should clear. Often, I have dates I can travel and no flights have R at booking on those dates--so I waitlist with an instrument. And several times this year, I've had the flights not clear in a timely manner one R inventory did appear (from several hours to over 24 hours later) and have had to call--without the ability to use ExpertFlyer or similar alert services, that means I get to go back to running lots of searches myself. I suppose I could stand up my own scraper which does award searches repeatedly and sends me (and only me) alerts since it would sign into .bomb with my MP #...


Although true, there was value in seeing this inventory prior to the SDC period to see if it was worth bothering trying.



I used such investigations several times this year during what seem to be irrops every time I fly. Much easier to call in and say, "Can you switch me to these two flights, which will preserve my upgrade as they have 'R' space?" than have the agent have to search through a bunch of different flights--and in irrops, of course those agents are very busy themselves!



I don't think that was their goal...


I think you're much closer...


I think the "problem" was people calling in and asking why their waitlisted upgrades hadn't cleared when there was R inventory (maybe the confusion was between instrument-supported and CPU)... now, we'll just call repeatedly and ask, "Is there R inventory?" :p



Same here. And EF et al were much faster than 15-20 seconds, so I don't think they were just scraping given how slow UA is through their own GUI.


Works okay for new flight searches--less so for determining whether or not to apply an instrument at a later date (e.g. R opens up), or for when one's upgrade has gotten "stuck" (as has happened to me several times).

And back before 3/3, creating a dummy award booking was the only way you could "see" upgrade space, at least on .bomb.

I almost left UA when they removed E+ at booking from the Silver benefits. I ended up being Gold with some additional travel, but now I find myself once again considering alternatives. I use the fare class availability frequently, so its removal basically tells me that UA doesn't appreciate my business. I have alternatives, including lifetime status and full fare class availability information on AA.

You were correct not to "expect anyone here will believe" you
 

Shannon, I (like others here) don't believe you are other than the messanger.

BUT, any communication that has to include the phrase "I don't expect everyone here will believe me" to a group of people that includes customers that like me spend $50-60K per year, and a whole lot more who are spending $20-30K per year, says that you are doing MAJOR MAJOR damage to the brand.

At the point you are right, very few folks beleive anything that UA has to say. You did not make these decissions, but they were made, and now UA is at a place where its best customers don't believe what UA has to say.

From little things like the self evidently stupid explanation for the 3/3 milage changes, to big things like trying to sell the new MP program as better (CO execs have candedly admitted they raised the benifits for MPCO folks from one-pass and cut down the PMUA benifits) to this Friday 5 pm drop, UAs attitude seems to be "make the decission we think will short term make money, and try to spin it"

I suggest that you get back with Martin Hand, Mark Bergsrun, Doug Leo, Feff Foland, and others and sit in a room and decide what you guys need to do so that your customers (1) start to trust you again, and (2) want to give you business.

Absent this your revenue picture will keep looking glummm :eek:

Why should it only be for 1K and GS? You think us lowly Golds (ex 10 year 1K) don't want the feature? Platinums? Silvers? Non-status? If keep it, keep it for all.

Just adding my voice to the disappointment.

I use this functionality on every flight search. And, for those of us who fly a lot and earn RPUs or GPUs -- and especially for using these awards for multiple parties on one flight -- this functionality is essential. Last year I flew 150K miles, and as a result got 8 GPUs. Tomorrow I leave for Europe with 4 of us using 3 of those GPUs on the same outbound flight and 3 on the same return flight -- and flying into one city and returning from another (all to be able to use my GPUs). Undertaking that search on my own would have been impossible to arrange without this functionality. And, it would have eaten up hours of agent time to do so.

I can't help but think that this just moves customers from using a satisfaction-driving self-service capability to one which will require calling UA and being less satisfied by that required process.

unless of course they were continually scraping caching, updating it every new scrape, it is a way to retrieve data FAST, but not efficient on the source servers!

Checking the "MileagePlus Upgrade Award" box does not work unless your billing address is in the USA. So this doesn't work for many even when searching for upgradability before purchasing a flight.

Funny .. I just called in order to check R for an upcoming flight and was told by the agent we can not reveal that information (policy). Intesting and fast change there as well....geez.:td:

"Expert Mode" Changes
 

I just called reservations and they agreed this is stupid but also confirmed that they can and will verbally indicate whether or not space is available in a given bucket. Totally stupid. I am just amazed at the things UA deems acceptable to do to frequent fliers. Amazed. And totally angry.

it is worse
 

It looks worse when you consider using GPUs to upgrade TPAC/TATL flights that are R0 with intent of waitlisting. The fare difference between W and the lowest available fare can be significant. Before UA eliminated the expert fare display, the decision to waitlist an upgrade could be informed by the availability in the various business class fare buckets. UA has eliminated this course of action and this is bad for the customer and I believe it will have a negative impact on their business in the long term.

I wonder how this will impact those customers looking to select C/D fares in hopes of an F upgrade opening up.

V/r,

-Cyborg

Another change that just sucks. Thanks SMI/J!

Wasn't this merger touted by UA and CO as being good for consumers? It never ceases to amaze me how anti-customer this outfit's management is.

If they are really worried about confusing flyers, maybe they should start with not having two different and distinct premium cabins on the same plane that both use the word "First". Seems like they are using the "customer confusion" argument selectively.

Not sure if you are tongue in cheek or not but that is the very definition of scraping.