jkburns1

I don't understand the big hoo ra over this..

I do giggle at fact 9 months later we still have all the PMUA vs PMCO comments and BS - reminds me of 3rd graders saying "my daddy's bigger/better then yours."


Agreed that if there is a priority and you paid for the F seat rather then upgraded you should get the meal priority. Does appear for many of you this is nothing more then DYKWIA ego stroking over a bad meal.

Seems so much easier to pick your seat and if it's a big deal sit in front.

What really blows my mind is the UA meals suck or are mediocre at best for the most part so why does everyone care so much?

LilAbner

Obviously you've never had a military person in uniform, or some old lady in a wheelchair, have the audacity to cut in front of you on The Carpet!

It's ALL about "Me-Me-Me on FT!!! Priorities always come first (or something like that)!

exerda

How did upgraders not "pay" for their meals? For that matter, how were paid F pax (presumably those you refer to as "actually pay[ing] for their meals") going to be guaranteed their choice under the CO system, anyway? So paid F pax always choose row 1 or even have an option to do so?


What is it that makes you CO apologists so upset about rewarding pax who fly the airline the most frequently, and who outside a tiny minority of extreme MRers, consistently provide revenue to the airline?

Is it because you're not a GS, 1K, etc., and get mad that someone who gives the airline more business might get recognized for that? That seems like the most backwards notion, but I suppose it could explain some of the attitude.


Yeah, Jeff has a fantastic thing going, taking the first-place in on-time arrivals airline to last, sending high-revenue pax fleeing for the hills, and trashing the bottom line...


Oh, come on. It has nothing to do with ego. People complain, "not another one of those UA-vs-CO threads," but then here we go, anything PMUA did which PMUA flyers miss, it's because of "over-entitled egos."

adagio

If this logic follows, would it also make sense for 1Ks to be further segmented by spend? Why should a 1k with a spend north of 20K not be treated differently than a 1K with a spend around 5K. Loyalty, but also the revenue from that loyalty, would seem to make sense in terms of perks and "ego stroking."

donjo

Most of the domestic meals in first this year have been nothing to drool over.

LAXOGG

Big ^ on this from me too.

If the above priority scheme is implemented, it would appear that FA's will wander through cabin and seek out GS and 1K for their meal choice.
I assume the remaining choices would then be filled based upon FTB. Pass Riders will be skipped in this sweep and accommodated on a final sweep.

pdx1M

My view is that this was a "nice to have" recognition of folks that consistently spend with UA. I wouldn't pick or abandon UA over this (but over some other things yes) and I don't need my ego stroked. Most businesses attempt to recognize their better customers in various ways - this just falls into that category. Not about entitlement nor ego. And per the pmUA official way of doing it, nearly completely unobtrusive. The FA simply goes through the cabin and asks everyone in turn for their first and second (or if only 2 notes that they may run out) choice. It then probably took that FA all of 30 seconds to assign meals to the cabin back in the galley. If you didn't know what was going on or if you weren't exactly in a seat where the person next to you got their first choice but you didn't when you both had asked for the same thing you wouldn't even realize it was happening. So how that could be ego stroking is beyond me.

Reality is that I can spend my travel dollar with any number of carriers and UA needs to win that purchase. I have observed many times that the new UA had moved along the scale ranging from a purely transactional purchase model to a custimer relationship purchase model significantly more toward transactional than pmUA. In my experience, most successful companies attempt to have at least something of a relationship purchase model in place simply because it makes acquiring business a LOT cheaper. Every time UA sells a ticket to one of us that simply went to UA.com rather than kayaking and noticing a cheaper/better available option that is the result of a relationship based customer model. Perhaps they are finally noticing that this is what some of their changes has resulted in and are trying to course correct a bit.

And to the person that noted that there were tiers of 1K - all these elite buckets excepting GS are just approximations of customer value from the UA side. To the extent that they decide to make revenue a more significant part of the bucketing I would have no problem with them changing the bucket qualifications to do that. But note that the PQM bonus for higher fares is essentially this - they are at some level saying it isn't really purely how much you fly UA but a bit about spend. Yes it is very imperfect when true MR types are considered but these are a seriously small percentage of flyers and I'd bet that once you remove them from the stats the UA revenue bands for the buckets aren't as wide as you'd think.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Truly posted like someone who's been in row 6A that's suddenly been down-sized to an a/c with only 4 or 5 rows of first. Come on. 4-8 formerly first pax will be sitting in Y - or do you just sit on somebody's lap?

I've been on a plane where it happened. BOS-EWR - 5 rows took off, lost 1/2 hydraulics, turned back. Put on new plane with 4 rows. Row 5 was called to podium for new seat assignments.

Uaflyer710

If your loyalty goes to an Airline because of getting a choice of a meal then that's sad.

TomA

If they are not a MP member, they are likely a one-off or kayaker, which in my mind are the same thing.

I think they would say that it is just one of many things that makes them loyal. A piece of the puzzle, if you will.

Halo117

Sorry but there are many full fare Plats and Golds out there that this policy will negatively affect. I say they add Full fare(regardless of status) to the list next to GS then 1k if you really want this to work. Assuming the full fare is not 1k is shorsighted. Heck even state that that paid B/BF/F gets first meal choice as a marketing tool.

Also no other US carrier does this scheme so to say that sCO was in the wrong is silly I guess AA, DL, US were just sub par compared to pmUA....please!

Mike Jacoubowsky

OK, nobody else will speak up for anyone not a 1K/GS, so guess I will.

Gone are my lowly 2P days... when I would have stood on the pulpit and preached to the lowly masses that we aren't worthy; that those zillion-BIS-milers deserve much more than we do, that we should be happy for the scraps & bread crumbs and, especially, E+.

But I'm not one of them anymore . I'm a Platinum, and back in the CO days, that would have been the highest (earned) level attainable. And for that, under the new regime, I am now relegated to the "lower half" of elite-dom. The old United gave plenty of recognition to the 1P; the new United doesn't even give RDM equivalency to a Plat member that was taken for granted as a 1P.

OK, the reality is that this doesn't bother me in the slightest, and will actually enhance my people-watching skills because it will be easier to spot the 1Ks on the plane.

But there is a small part of me that wonders if doing things this way might indicate bad things ahead of the Platinum ranks?

(Regarding the lowly 2P- my remarks aren't meant to be disparaging. I served many years as a lowly 2P, and feel for what they now go through. I would not be a lowly 2P on United, or any other airline, ever again. Kayaking is the new world order for the sub-50k flyers)

nevansm

ORD-LAX today sCO crew, guy went right to last row and worked his way forward (I was in row 1). He simply said "lunch?" I asked whether there were choices he said "only salad" - which I knew was a lie as I had heard others offered the sandwich. I asked if he had taken orders by status as was the new policy, he just walked away. This was an indication of the horribleness of this crew. Absolutely the worst crew I've ever had, <sarcasm>what a surprise it was sCO. </>

demkr

Hopefully those that feel that sitting in a bulkhead row should be rewarded more than status will come around to the new policy.

We know that the concept of rewarding passengers with perks according to loyalty is relatively new to the sCO "treat everyone the same!!" folks.

It took almost a year, but I guess the socialistic "all elites are equal" stuff wasn't exactly a money maker.

Mike Jacoubowsky

It's not as if anything you could have said at that point would make a difference in what you were offered, so why fan the flames (allowing an sCO crew to have more reason to believe that 1Ks are over-entitled)? Why not instead send an email thanking United for the change, but mention that it would be better for the company if they made sure such implementations were done system-wide and not allow continuing UA vs CO issues to fester?