CU and FU... Seems like there are lots of people in this thread thinking the same thing -- Was that on purpose ;)?

Oh, totally true. She's unfortunately stuck in the middle of what is sure to be a nasty "conversation".

Ladies and gents, this sums it up.

Back in the good old PMCO days, few called them on their not delivering on promises made to elites. Those who did were ridiculed.

UNITED was sick and tired of us calling them on their treating their over-entitled elites like crap.

So they tried to make it harder for us to call them on it.

Except they forgot about unintended consequences.

Just want add my disappointment -- a significant adverse impact on me would be SDC (and the loss of transparency in time of need). Very sad.

Just an awful, myopic change. Even the biggest merger apologists (I have probably been among them) are starting to get fed up with this garbage.

No, you won't. Come on people. Read the posts here. :rolleyes:

Just learned about this, when I looked for the fare class buckets.
This move is absolutely ridiculous and cannot be reasonably explained to any UA FF!

+1
I wouldn't characterize myself as an apologist, but I have given UA the benefit of the doubt and have been hoping to see improvements in IT, customer service, and operations. I'm becoming less hopeful.

+1
As I said before, it's disrespectful of the customers.

My 10-year-old son just wrote an essay on his short and long term goals. I wonder what UA's senior management would write.

Just learnt of this new Benefit that CO has bestowed on us, and I came to the same conclusion. Going forward my only choice will be to call the 1K desk give them a few dates Im looking at and having them waste their time finding me R>0 to confirm at time of booking.

Wouldnt be at all surprised to see the wait times to speak to an agent going back to the wait times of 3/4

There are pros and cons for everything and imo this is simply another DUMB move on COs behalf. Its as if they simply want all the top Elites to move to another Carrier.

Got 33k booked already for 1/13 that will leave me 40k short for 1M. Once I cross that mark I dont think I will be bothering COs agents much longer for help in finding R>0 as I dont think I will be purchasing that many tkts on a Carrier that is doing everything it can to push its customers away

How? :confused:

Sadly, what I at first assumed was a weekend "glitch" to do a systems update turns out to be a purposeful change so bizarre and frustrating it's hard to believe it has been implemented. Echoing the sentiments of the majority, I strongly feel that MORE information in the hands of the customer makes the system MORE efficient. Now there will be an overload of callers who have to wade and weave their way through an already opaque system in the dark = high frustration and less satisfaction. Let's hope the incredible outpouring of negative feedback on FT leads to a reversal. UA - you still haven't learned (and maybe never will learn) one of the cardinal rules of the service industry: don't take something away from a customer once you have given it. That is far worse than never haven given it at all.

1) I question my loyalty to an airline that seems just so clueless. Did no one at the conference table say "maybe we shouldn't use 'FU' on our best customers?" I actually am not joking here, that's the sort of Customer Relations 101 that I expect from a vaguely clued-in company. In marketing message is everything and these dopes don't get it (of course their marketing includes a clip-art logo and a font that came free with a netbook).

2) This change only pisses off the customers they need to stay in business. Another rule: if you are taking something away, replace it with something else. Yet Shannon can't even pull that off because there is only a vague promise of some sort of new method of transparency.

3) One more boneheaded move before I stop the tally: the old excuse that we're taking away this perceived benefit because it was hard for others. Thanks for treating us like your most casual, least-loyal and least-profitable customers. We're happy to start acting like them as well. If United wants to make upgrades ever-harcder despite my loyalty the reason for my loyalty - like me - is gone.

Bonus: That they removed the relatively easy way of finding R inventory but still made the info somewhat available if you jump through extra hoops via the advanced search method (FU indeed) again shows how poorly thought out this move has been. But what about this merger has been well thought out? I laugh every time I see a CO-inspired wingwalker getting paid to do something useless every time we pushback because while current management admits that it was not done under United and is not needed, CO paid a guy to walk with the plane out and so shall the new UA. Boneheads. [This was in a merger article a few months ago.]

I think the miscalculation that UA makes is that they don't realize how long it takes for someone who was a steady 1K (like me) to shift carriers. They see only the short term and assume the long term will be the same.

In my case, the final tilting point was AA comping me to Exec. But even then, I still had three int'l round trips already booked on UA, two of them in C and one in economy w/upgrades. So it must look like I am remaining a "loyal" customer. Somewhat to my surprise, these trips mean I will end up at 85K EQMs for this year. So until this announcement I was actually considering one more int'l RT in C to get the SWU's (that plan has now been killed).

Additionally, shortly after my decision, I booked a family int'l RT on American, 7 people doing TPAC. An upcoming trip to the midwest will be on AA. And starting in 2013, I will take less convenient routes to book my int'l trips, all in C since I will not make ExecPlat this year, on AA/OneWorld. UA will not see the effect of my personal decision until nearly a year has passed after I made it.

Thus, short term what looks like a trickle will change into a waterfall, at least for me. I do not think that I am the only one in this situation.

it been posted >5 times in this thread and a separate thread has been start on the DIY approaches w/o involving an agent
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ing-codes.html

Haven't been keeping up for a few hours so may have missed this, but what is the plan once the geniuses at UA remove the MP award upgrade checkbox from the advanced search page because of continued 'abuse'?

BS on above. UA knows very well what they are doing. Don't try to sugar coat it.