Apologies... I had never paid attention to it before, since R was being showed with the fare classes link...

Yeah, we didn't really need to use it before (unless you wanted to instant upgrade at booking, using miles only, without waiting for the "ticketing sweeps" which sometimes took hours just to issue a ticket). Because the much better inventory display was available.. but it was there.

However, if UA says there is something new, there should be something that is actually new..

I don't think a harassing call campaign will be effective - they'll stop giving the information out over the phone.

Revenue buckets are available at a number of places - EF, KVS, etc.

and free at flightstats

Maybe the new United should turn off the seat map function as well since they like to change people's seat assignment and cause problem......

No that is not a new added feature. It has been there for quite some time.
(Sorry I had not read more before posting this reaction. As this has already been pointed out).

It is only a matter of time I believe.

United is losing a thousand or two of my business over this. I need a long haul trip somewhere interesting, anywhere interesting, to make 1k again. I had been using ExpertFlyer to scan upgrade availability over several months to places like HKG, in hopes of planning a reasonable trip with a confirmed upgrade in at least one direction. (ExpertFlyer is worth its subscription fees to me for ease of use.)

Using UA's site one day at a time is of course too painful here. I'd be thrilled if UA would introduce a monthly matrix tool like they show for award searches. Barring that, it would at least be a Pyrrhic victory if enough of us buffed up and released scripts for scraping UA.com to force them to use captchas, a scarlet letter for their moronic treatment of us.

I already knew there was really no point to making 1k again as a transcon flyer. This move drums it in, UA is truly and deliberately hostile to us, something we've all known for months, yet we stay here in denial.

I admit to not having read every post in this thread.
 

Just got back from a work trip to Winston-Salem, which caused me to miss this announcement. I don't have time to read the entire thread, but in the pages I have read, no one has mentioned my concern.

My issue has nothing to do with scoping out award or upgrade availability. My concern is that United has made it harder for me to do my job. I am a high school teacher who books lots of trips to competitions for her students (10-15 trips per year, 4-30 students per trip, 150+ tickets per year). My students pay for everything, so I have to keep costs down.

We cannot afford to pay a travel agent or pay United for phone reservations, so I book everything online. I use the fare bucket information on United.com to ensure that I maximize my purchases of tickets at the lowest fares. Knowing the number of seats available in the lowest fare buckets is critical. Though I can go elsewhere for this information, doing so adds time to the booking process for me. It is very frustrating that United has decided to do away with such a useful feature. I don't think that it is to United's advantage that it is now more difficult for me to purchase tickets to fly United.

Again, they won't do this, because they're not concerned about problems as you and I understand them.

In their corporate double-speak "problem" is code for "whatever might reduce our ability to generate revenue."

Been traveling and just saw this thread for the first time.

I can't think of anything new to add. I also used this feature when selecting flights. I don't intend to lose access to the information, though, so I'll be one of many tying up the UA phone lines making the agent go through every flight's availability that I used to see online. Not sure how UA is losing money showing the availability, but you can be sure that when average call times (and hold times) among UA elites start going way up, the outcome (customer satisfaction and additional agents to handle the extra calls) will be huge.

Bad, bad idea UA.

Good point: To reduce confusion COdbaUA can do the following too -

1. Remove arrival and departure information
2. Remove seat maps - these days the boarding on WN is more civil than COdbaUA.
3. Aircraft information - so that you do not have people cherry picking flights trying to avoid CRJs.
4. Where is the aircraft coming from - so you do not have people calling in asking to be rebooked when their inbound is late.

To a COdbaUA employee this post might sound like a joke, but in truth this is what I feel about how you think. Hide information that make your customers make informed decisions.

On the bright side, my guess is that this is the 'fix' we were waiting for about no add'l RN space (always being identical to R, post 3/3). By turning the fare buckets off, we never get to see them in the first place and never realize there is no benefit to being Platinum or above in terms of added R space.

Of course they could have just fixed the problem and had something to point to as a reason to aim higher in terms of status...

Sorry - your right. My "billing address is in the UAE but I have .com set to the regular US site. It doesn't work when I set it back to UAE

The UA website shows you the lowest fare. Not every bucket is available for every flight, some buckets are for connecting fares, other are for direct. If you're always looking for the lowest bucket you will be disappointed.

Perhaps that's the real reason they turned it off, because people were expecting to be able to book a lower bucket not realizing it was for a connecting fare??