andyh64000

Why not at least give us a free drink or snack box when we sit in the back. I am not even close to clearing these days. I am already down to #4 today for a flight 3 hours from now on a 737-900 with no seats available for a Weds SFO-SEA flight which I used to clear 100% of the time (I was #10 on the way up).
Obviously much of the increase of $2B in ancillary revenue is going to come from selling as many TODs as possible. OK fine...This is a business decision that apparently makes more money than customers it drives away.
At least throw us a freaking bone here and give us a free drink or snack. I mean if we won the lottery while being struck by lightning and actually cleared a CPU we would get free drinks and food anyway so why not extend the courtesy and give us some love in coach? Yes we get 10 free drink chits but when upgrades never clear do you really think anyone has any left in December? In fact if they did this you could just ditch the drink chits and save money on printing.

UAPremierGuy

Yeah, um, not sure where you've been, but COdbaUA clearly doesn't value us 1Ks. I'd suggest switching to an airline that does (namely AA).

demkr

It'd be a nice gesture, you know, like all their competitors do for their top tier elites. But, we can't have that can we!

Kacee

SFO-SEA? You could easily have 5 GS and 20 1Ks on that flight, and UA could have sold half an F cabin full of discount F fares, not to mention a handful of Y/B/M-ups. So I'm not sure what you're complaining about, except that you seem to think all 1Ks should sit in F, regardless what kind of ticket they bought. That is not the way it works.

PV_Premier

not particularly interested in the free box o' carbs and sodium, but a free jack and coke would pique my interest. unfortunately not enough to stop my migration to an airline that already does this, along with a BOB menu that actually offers reasonable hot meals on mid-con length flights.

Madone59

^

SFO-SEA.....really? Come on, that is a snack basket flight.

crnk

So you had one flight and didn't clear. I've done fantastic this year as a gold on entirely discount fares, including EWR-IAH last night at 48 hours plus the outbound last week IAH-ORD and was sure ORD-YYZ would clear before changing to IAH-YYZ and getting upgraded on that 40 minutes after making the change (we went out with 2/6 empty too!) I suspect my IAH-SLC 9pm thurs is close to 100%--I was regularly getting it as a silver too. PDX-IAH redeye sunday/monday night 2/2 this year. I regularly get IAH-ORD early AM fridays, plus a mileage ticket on thurs july 4.

Your % is going to vary a lot by what time of day and route you're on. Who knows if it is TOD or they're maybe just selling discount F tickets...or even just the wrong week to travel. I missed a SEA-IAH redeye this winter because I failed to realize I'd be there during comic con weekend. Based on my studies of the weekends before and after, I am sure I would have got the upgrade if it was any other weekend. SLC-IAH monday AM--I don't think I've ever got upgraded on that flight, along with a really low rate for most anything at 2-4pm on Friday ex-IAH (my ideal departure time).

Edit to add: I did have a point here, even if I didn't sum it up until now. Personal experience is fine but I wanted to point out that the blanket statement isn't true and provide some few data points otherwise. But as noted, I can get near 100% F on some routes while the same city pairs as the opposite route I'm consistently at or near 0% (ORD-IAH Sun late/Monday first flight is another good 0% example for me).

andyh64000

Except that I have flown this route as a 1K for 8 years and prior to 3/1 I was 100% (even on Airbii) and prior to this year I was 50-75%. This year I am 0% on CPUs...and in almost every case not even close. And it isn't just SEA-SFO it is every domestic flight I have taken this year (I do clear NRT-ICN but UA essentially killed that route for me anyway).

I don't think 1Ks should automatically be given F but if we don't clear at least throw us a bone in coach. It seems logical anyway since if the ToD machine was broken and we cleared we would have a snack and drinks anyway.

Do you think this is the first flight I have taken this year?

And I am not really complaining about how difficult it is to upgrade (maybe a little), but if that is COdbaUA's policy fine...at least throw us former overentitled's a bone when we sit in coach.

Often1

1. If those TOD's really were $10, OP would be buying them. But, they're not. So, they're not TOD's.
2. UA provides 1K's which, after all, are it's 2nd-tier after GS, with instant UG's or priority UG ahead of all but GS on a discounted M fare (Y/B for the remainder of elites).
3. Business travelers are presumably being reimbursed the cost of their meals, so the free snack/drink isn't a big deal at that level.

Baze

That's good for you that you are having that much success. But you really shouldn't have said "so you had one flight and didn't clear". As has been said in many threads it is all about the time/airport/fare along with status which can dictate success or failure rates. Some have great success rates, others of us have horrible success rates.

noe94131

This is also the time of year where people burn through their unused (unusable) Global Upgrade certs ... not only on themselves but on their family/friends ... versus letting them expire on 1/31/14.

That drops you even further down the list.

GoAmtrak

There must be some sort of loyalty-inducing psychological effect, or AA wouldn't be offering that benefit to its EXPs who might well be traveling on corporate expense as well.

Conversely, UA could pitch this benefit to the corporate travel managers whose business they're so desperate to retain. "Your 1Ks' upgrades might not clear like they used to, but we'll help you avoid the incremental meal expenses when they fly in Y."

DCEsquire

I agree completely. A year into the merger I actually had an FA bring free drinks for the 1ks in the back of the bus. I was over the top pleased and hoped it was some test that UA was doing but excited. That was the first and last time I ever experienced it.

I'm still not searching for the lowest price flight but I'm not into loyalty anymore. UA devalues the program and I devalue UA. Quid pro quo.

blueman2

Well, it is all about city pairs. I am now 1 for 9 on AUS-SFO in mostly E fares (yup, those are damn expensive fares). So don't discount the OPs experiences. Mine are mostly the same as his.

goalie

1. I have personally turned down a $10.00 upgrade offer as a matter of principle as I will not pay for an upgrade with cash so if I have turned them down, how can you say that others (including the OP) haven't turned them down as well?

2. Not all if us can afford to purchase instant upgrade fares either because we pay on our own dime or corporate travel policy requires the lowest available fare be purchased

3. You "presume" just as in items 1 & 2 but that may not be the case and who's to say that it's not a big deal?