Traveling2

It's always something with UA, isn't it? And didn't we just go this in September 2012? Made the WSJ, didn't it?

The polite note that I just sent to UA is below:

Dear United:
I awoke this morning to find that UA has pulled award inventory from ExpertFlyer.com.

I fly extra miles each year to make it to 1k to earn GPU's. I then spend extra money on W or higher fares to use those instruments. ExpertFlyer offered a reasonably quick way to search for R fares and to set up alerts for R availability. Yes, I can search for R availability on united.com using "expert mode" but it is cumbersome and time-consuming.

This change affects the value of my GPU's and it affects the number of miles I will fly on United. Back in September 2012, UA pulled R availability from its website (and from ExpertFlyer). Do you recall the outrage?

Please restore award availability to ExpertFlyer. As I've explained above, I think it is in the interests of both United and its loyal customers.

bocastephen

Besides yet another anti-customer copycat move off Delta from UA (they can't think of *anything* on their own??), EF is silent in this thread after claiming they can't comment on the Delta thread.

My assumption is they are OK losing a substantial number of subscribers and downsizing their business vs escalating this or at least coming clean to the user community about what is really going on with these carriers and their options or lack thereof to counter.

So, EF - here is your chance - time to come clean and let everyone know what's going on here, or don't be surprised when you see a substantial loss of revenue - do you want to fight for it or not??

sbm12

You got that info after the fact. I got mine before it ever happened. Your choice which you want to believe, but I am pretty confident with my source telling me that they were absolutely going to pretty much do exactly what I described above.
How so? Same applicable fares and same inventory.

JetAway

A little easier? Heck no, a LOT easier.

littlegreenmen

My guess is that it would take no more than a couple of hours to write a little python or perl to scrape these data off of UA. Probably some ToS issues to contend with (e.g. the discussion of kvstool being a 'browser'), but if it comes to this I can guarantee you I will make it open source.

Madone59

I already wrote a note to UA. Clearly the problem is not technical if ALL other inventory is still available on EF. This is all about UA continuing to build barriers between their best flyers and the "perks" we receive.

The value-add to UA restricting this in hopes to reduce UG "Line jumpers" has to be tiny. FT is a fraction of a FF community, and only a fraction of us use EF (or KVS). So how many people is UA upsetting with this 10,000.....50,000....I doubt it.

They clearly think there is less value in the loyal few then there is in the lemming masses.

drewguy

The concern is that it's a precursor to removing this information from expert mode on UA.

In addition, users of Expert Flyer wont get email alerts, and unless they have access to a computer to check R space will need to call frequently.

DENflyer3

Opps, It looks like I picked the wrong month and year to get my expertflyer subscription.

Does this change really mean that UAL is going to get rid of R availability even in Expertmode? I have only trip in the next year that I really care about R availability but if that one vacation causes me to sit in the back of the bus with all my flying this year, I will be deeply disappointed.

GBadger

If we can't see R inventory, then we can't complain about it not being allocated correctly for upgrade instruments. My guess is that too many people were jumping on the R space opened within 24 hours, and that instead of getting buy up money as intended, UA was getting a bunch of calls asking for their (rightfully requested) upgrades to be processed.

This is all about making it harder for people to be alerted to the fact that instrument-supported upgrades are not always processed when R opens up. Keeping more R open means being able to sell more upgrades before the flight.

escapefromphl

I have maintained there's a link between TOD (or HOD/UFC whatever) offers and R availability. Thus preventing customers grabbing this inventory the moment they become available should in theory increase revenue?

Weez_1000

Bolding mine...No one knows that yet but I believe strongly it will not be removed. Others as you can see feel differently. Ive been wrong many times before, time will tell.

exerda

It doesn't disappear from EF until Friday according to the e-mail I got from EF. So the fear is still that it will disappear from Expert Mode as well--folks saying, "But it's still there," could be in for a surprise Friday announcement. Or perhaps not--I just take a "glass half empty" view of UA, understandably, when it comes to changes like this.


That gets at the "cost" issue some have raised: if the problem was UA and/or EDS/HP asking for more $$ to access the data than EF was willing to pay, why would it only affect elite award and upgrade inventory?

unhappyflyer

Not sure this is true as evidenced by the accelerating negative trends on margin between UA and its competitors and the acknowledgement of the loss of corporate and HVFs

bob_the_d

to each their own. everyone's got things they're willing to tolerate and things they won't. switching to half cashews, streaming-IFE and the myriad of other things are all things that don't personally bother me. redemption opens and GPU's are sacred to me though. the W requirement irked me seriously, but i still clear regularly at booking so it hasn't chased me away yet. taking away expert mode, while not confirmed, isn't inconceivable. there's just three things for me i need to know. is there space available to upgrade at booking, how many seats are there and is there any way for me to check on a daily basis if inventory has opened up. expert mode does that for me. if they get rid of that, that puts us all in the W lottery but completely blind. that's a game i won't play because it could potentially cost me thousands of dollars.

but again, it's all what's important to you. seriously screwing with the GPU process is something that would actually drive me away. it just hasn't happened yet so i never found a compelling reason to leave. looks like one might be coming in 2014 though.

PaulInTheSky

Huge downgrade of the service. Huge disappointment. Recently booked a couple of flights in November since I last flew UA in April with the 8-hour delay without any sign of apology or compensation. And this.

Dear UAInsider,

I am not exactly sure the rationale behind the GPU visibility in Expertflyer, but this is clearly one of the most destroying moves to loyal customers who look for upgrade space on there own without jamming the elite line every hour. As a customer who flies UA regularly, I hope you understand my intention and the workload of customer service with this particular feature in UA. Not just the R space, but the elite award inventory, which is also important for customers to redeem miles on Star Alliance.

I hope you realize the consequences of this change and reconsider what damage it will have upon loyal customers.

Sincerely,
Paulakers2010