While United Removes Information about Frequent Flyers for Flight Attendents ...
 

Many of us are not impressed by the new United but something that makes the least sense to me is that they have actually removed information about their frequent flyers (such as Million Miler status) from manifests.

Meanwhile Delta is providing their flight attendants with tools that reflect that it's 2013.

http://crankyflier.com/2013/08/27/de...elp-travelers/

Other airlines like Lufthansa also provide more information in their manifests to help their flight attendants with an idea who is flying with them for that flight.

I would really like to understand why United is choosing to display less information about people flying with them rather than more to their staff. Can someone enlighten me?

Just speculation here, but maybe because the systems are not capable of showing this information (if the FF system and flight manifest are separated, it may be difficult).

With that said, a couple of quick questions:

1. What is the benefit of having the information in the FA's hands anyway? The way I see it is if I fly DL (which I never do), pay for a international biz class seat and receive less attention than someone else on the plane (who may or may not be diamond elite - I will never know), then I might be upset enough to never fly them again. Ask an Asian female if they like flying SQ, and you will get the same response (from what I have heard - use this as an example, and please don't blast me). I am not shooting you down, just don't understand the benefit of having the FA's with this sort of information.

2. I have been thinking about this for a while - what is the value of a customer to UA? If we fly UA despite better service on international carriers, or whatever, then there is no incremental value to UA by spending more on us. Further, with the amount of switching that goes on, the retention rate is low - this means that the value of a customer is probably relatively small, in their eyes. To increase the value, they may believe they are better off increasing fees ($50 per flight, say), versus having us not switch (which we will switch anyway).

anyway, my 2 cents.

Hey, all elites should be treated equal! We need to get over our "I'm better than you" mentality! We should all board at the same time, have the same priority for meal choice, we should all check in at the same counter. Who cares if you fly 125,000 miles a year? If someone pays $60 for a credit card, they've earned the right to check in at the same counter as you and have the same security privilege as you.

Anyone who says different is an elitist solely looking to have their ego stroked.

sarcasm/off

When everyone is special, then no one is special.

Hmmm, I was addressed by name on a flight over the weekend and all the 1K's names were circled for first meal choice.

The article says that Delta could push that information to the phone, not that it is. Using a Nokia 820 is not that smart.

Over in British Airways land, you'll occasionally see bemused posters saying "the purser came and thanked me for all my travel this year because it said on his iPad that I had taken 6 longhaul international Club World flights". Kinda spooky!

Possibly but it used to show until early this year. I remember when it happened (I was on a overnight LAX-IAH flight) and the FAs were freaking out cause it removed all the MM and full fare information (they kindly allowed me a quick peek). Same thing for my connecting IAH-CLE flight. :(

I think also at the time, it didn't show any status below Plat (just denoted that they had status). Not sure if this is still the case.

I think that would be kinda nice actually. Just a small signal that the airline does notice the business you send their way. However, when it comes to UA I think I know how much they care....not.

Some flights are great, some flights are not.

I was quite surprised on a flight from Vancouver to Houston a few weeks ago. I was sitting in E+ and a FA from BF came back to my seat, called me by name and asked me if I would like a drink from the BF galley, also before landing I was offered a warm cookie. I thought is was very nice of her, and something I would have never expected. Got a few raised eye browses from those sitting around me. By the way it was a UA crew.

They have BF on YVR-IAH????

As far as I'm concerned, everyone in the FC or BF cabin should be treated the same regardless how they got there, award miles, 1K upgrade, or paid ticket by non-premier. OTH, it wouldn't hurt that the FAs in the back of the aircraft had some indication of who was an elite member or not, and they would recognize that with something as simple as addressing by name, or perhaps even a free drink.

Marketing 101 says to recognize and appreciate your best customers.

It costs United NOTHING to have a flight attendant say thank you for being a 1K or GS member.

I was on a flight last week from ORD-DEN (in coach) and the flight attendant came with a business card with a thank you note from the Captain. Little things like this make you feel appreciated.

I do agree that everyone in first should be treated equally though - regardless of how you got there. But that doesn't mean they should say thank you for flying every week.

My understanding is that the manifest entries for all passengers in the FC cabin indicating which FF program they belong to, UA status (if applicable), Star Alliance status (if applicable), Global Services, etc. No information as to fare class paid, as far as I know. In Y, status pax are listed on a "Noteworthy Pax" list, which is separate from the general Y manifest and has the same indications as the F cabin.

I don't think this has changed.

For the FC manifest, you are correct. I will not say which flight that was on, but one FA showed me the manifest after she mentioned that they do not see as many elites in F anymore. On that flight, quite bit of non-elites cleared into F before any elites including a GS. The manifest showed a measly 5 elites in F with one being Silver.

For the Y manifest, I haven't seen one in a long time. If I am in Y, nothing really matters.