Agreed. It ONLY makes sense if the execs at UA want to add another arrow to their quiver full of "ancillary revenue" sources.
Watch for UAI's "new feature" to include a cash component.

Dave

Fasten your seat belt. Based on United's current track record there are bound to be more changes you will "like".

After ruminating on this for a few days, and watching upcoming itins through KVS, I still can't grasp any reason for this other than UA being enveloped in stage fright that they were being seen as duplicitous in their upgrade operations.

The only confusion is by those customers who actually believed what they were told by UA and UAInsider in particular.

Rather than fix the problem they [UA] just made it more difficult to pinpoint their words aren't matching their actions.

Jeffie and his minions can't hit the street soon enough. Preferrably on a K fare with no upgrade.

impact on revenue?
 

I was trying to book an upgradable trip to Phuket over the weekend for me and my wife. Given these issues, I just decided to use miles instead. I was able to get first class to and from the US (business class in Asia) for 70K miles each way. The economy tickets I was looking at buying started at $5K each. UA didn't get the cash.

Why would you have paid $5K in cash anyways for tickets when they were available on points for so much less? You can claim UA isn't getting your cash but, quite frankly, if they did get your cash in that situation I'd say you were the one making the mistake. :eek:

There is a recently posted thread stating that NZ has also pulled R availability. There's no doubt this seems to be a trend. AA did it recently too. It's as though all these people got together in a room and had a conversation about it.

For that of the price tag, maybe he is going for at least B/Y for the TPAC leg, or it's already Z to begin with.

FALSE. AA pulled the inventory bucket that is used to support the Sticker Upgrades and the Free upgrades for EXP.
It did NOT pull the C class bucket that they use for SWU upgrades. In fairness, R is equivalent to C, so to put AA in the same bucket as COdbaUA here isn't right.

Dave

That's very true but I guarantee it will be coming to AA next. They just have more important things to worry about now. If US merges (takes over) AA then AA will catch up quickly w UA on the race to the bottom. If there is no merger, it will only be a matter of time before AA does it on there own. In all fairness to UA, I'd still rather have MP & not pay those ridiculous taxes on F awards thru Europe (which are hard to get around if you want F, C is easy). As far as upgrades I wouldn't want an upgrade to a C seat that's not lay flat either which also takes away any reason to pick AAdvantage over MP. (BA is a different story, the taxes are high but the product is worth it)

Still, why would you spend $5K when you can have a comparable itinerary at 70K points?

I would spend 5 & save the 70,000 points as those same 70,000 points can be used in F to destinations where the o/w fare is over $10,000. (that's where it's worth using miles (IMO)

Surely that's possible. OTOH: perhaps AA recognizes that IF it doesn't play silly buggers with it's upgrade scheme, then having the C inventory available to it's pax saves it CSR TIME and TIME is money. @:-) It's a pity that the dolts making these decisions at COdbaUA can't see that. :(
I'd agree in the event of a takeover, but I still think removal of the upgrade bucket is an assymetrical cost to the airline.
1) You obviously didn't fly UA prior to the installation of the IPTE product. Or, if you did you (or your employer, or someone) was able to pay for C.
2) I think the argument that angled flat vs. fully flat C seats "takes away ANY reason" to pick AAdvantage over MP is both hyperbole and wrong. YMMV.

Dave

70k miles for C/F trumps $5k for Y anyday, especially on these long haul flights (regardless of how you feel about UA).

What am I missing here? :confused:

This is huge for me!! Just went to book 3 tickets for this fall, all domestic between $450 and $900 each and couldn't find the fare codes, I thought it was my browser so I tried IE vs Firefox. I've been 100% loyal to UA and use the fare codes quite often to see upgrades etc, especially for int'l flights. I understood them very well for about 10 years now!

For example I was recently looking for R availability for my brother in law on a trip to NRT. He was going to book Delta because it was $800 cheaper unless he could find upgrade space. I looked for him a couple times a day for a month or so and sure enough, here came a R1 on a Sunday. He was going to book the Delta ticket the next day for $1300 but instead, because I found him an R1, he booked on UA for $2100, then used money and miles to upgrade. If I couldn't see the fare buckets, he would have just booked Delta, UA got extra revenue for showing the fare buckets. BTW..he said his flights were not very full.

This feature is so important to me, I will speak with my wallet. This will be the first time in 8 years that I haven't flown UA. I will be booking the 3 fairly expensive tickets this Friday with either Delta or American...suggestions on which one? The only way policies change is if we speak with our wallets! I'm willing to give up Gold this year on UA, settle for Silver because of this decision. After these 3 trips, if the fare buckets don't reappear, I will be booking 100% on price instead of loyalty, that many many times costs me significantly more money UA than the lowest fare!! This a real sad day for me, I kind of feel like I'm cheating on my wife, but it goes to show how important showing the codes are to me.

You do realize that you can still search for upgrade inventory online, right??