PV_Premier

80% of my trips to Europe are to either AGP, ALC, BCN, or AMS. i would actually fly to LEI if skyteam/*A would fly there, but only OW does on crappy IB CRJs out of MAD.

so, with the exception of SFO-AMS on KLM, i have to connect regardless of how i do it. VS doesn't fly to the 2nd tier destinations in Spain, and BA flights to ALC/AGP are out of LGW. AF is just fine for me, i like the west coast late afternoon departures and the ability to credit to AS. i could credit BA to AS, obviously, but i'm not gonna switch airports LHR->LGW just for a modestly superior premium economy product.

back when i flew *A consistently, i would either have to connect in FRA to AGP, or fly into AMS and then switch onto Transavia to get to ALC/LEI. those options weren't any more fun than just connecting in CDG.

anc-ord772

Hold up. The hardest part about moving to LA is that European departures are so early! There are a few in the 8pm hour, but most are 3-5pm, including AF. It's so frustrating coming from NYC, where you can work all day and then head out.

Buster CT1K

Unfortunately UA has made it far too complicated with PQDs and allowing nonelites to jump the upgrade queue. I just fly whichever airline offers the best value:service ratio now out of BOS. I was 1K for many years.

LaserSailor

No airline has disdain for you, nor love for you. It's your dollars they love.

LS, speculating that RNE speculates his wishes in private.....

Always Flyin

I strongly disagree with the general premise.

Every business is in search of revenue, as is United. Fair enough.

But what United has done to everyone under the Global Services level (and even to GS, just to a lesser extent), is flat-out lie to them ("lifetime" CR1s to Million Milers), and then have the gall to claim it is perfectly permissible to lie; reduce the benefits at each MileagePlus level; make published benefits illusory for the most part (e.g., domestic unlimited upgrades); significantly decrease the redemption value of MileagePlus rewards (particularly F and C awards on Star Alliance partners); mock its elite fliers ("over-entitled elites"), offering upgrades to Kettles at significantly lower prices than for elites since UA believes it already owns the elites; and decrease the flying experience (food and slimline seats).

In my book, that is clearly evidence of disdain for its customers.

I went from a $40-$50K a year flier on United to less than a $1,000 this year. And I am not the only one.

United has my back. Sure. They can watch my back as I fly on the competition.

United is an airline for those living in captive hubs, locked into corporate contracts, masochists, or who just don't know any better.

channa

UA is tolerable if you have a voucher or an upgrade instrument to use. Otherwise, it's bottom of the list.

Muckus

Well said! I completely agree. These are why I am switching to AS. I already refunded a $6k ticket to Asia on UA and rebooked it on CX.

kb1992

Agreed.

I can tolerate UA since GPU+W fare get me business class.

StingWest

It seems from what I read here that UA is a poor choice for domestic routes. So are the other majors, but maybe those are a little less of a poor choice.

I find that UA international (TATL) is roughly equivalent to the others I've tried (VS and BA), both in economy and business - better in some respects and not as good in others. (wish that UA had a premium economy though!)

It's the good availability of upgrades SFO<->LHR that keeps me on United. Connecting or not, I would consider another airline, even out of my "captive" hub, were it not for these upgrades (18/20 over the past year)

Always Flyin

Ah, yes. Of course. The wonderful upgrade lottery.

How many of those upgrades are clearing in advance?

How many don't clear at all after you've paid for a W fare?

I still remember when I bought a "B" fare and my international upgrade didn't clear. That was a firm nail in the United coffin for me.

I still have all 6 systemwides that were issued to me for 2014. Very minimum value these days in light of UA's current policies.

PV_Premier

I guess I am comparing to the departure times when I flew UA and connected in IAD. 3pm out of LAX/SFO straight to Paris is much better than 8am SMF to IAD then a 6pm from there to AMS.

Muckus

They are all CR1s as far as I am concerned. I haven't been able to use a SWU/GPU on an international segment in years. Once they took away most/all R availability in advance they became useless to me (can't upgrade Y to J without the lottery, and can't upgrade discounted J to F at all). So, I was booking business class on other *A carriers. The only reason to stick around were domestic CPUS, but now that those are so rare my last reason to stay went away. I'm not sure how AS will work out for me next year, but I think it will. If not, I can always do a challenge with AA...

AustinPilot

Quite a few, in my experience. Looking back at 2014, I used all six without too much trouble: AMS-IAH (cleared at booking), IAH-AMS (cleared at booking), AMS-IAH (waitlisted, cleared a couple of weeks in advance), JFK-FRA (paper cert on LH), EWR-PEK (cleared at booking), PEK-EWR (waitlisted, cleared 48 hours prior to the flight, the flight went mechanical, got rebooked and upgraded via NRT-EWR). And I was not cherry-picking, either, since my travel is work-related and the dates are pretty much fixed.

In any case, it's not like there is a better alternative for me. Given my typical flying, 110K miles a year or so, all in economy due to work rules, DL won't give me any international upgrade certs at all. I understand AA would give me 8, but from what I've seen, their transatlantic flights still have recliners in business class (except LHR, but I don't fly to LHR) and their route network is not nearly as extensive as UA's. Also, I tend to use my miles for transatlantic travel, and all transatlantic AA awards I found recently came with hundreds of dollars in junk fees. So AA is not a feasible option for me, either.

bldr1k

Yea - this is the core issue. I think people would be a lot more understanding about all of this if they would stop lying about benefits. At this point, nothing United says matters - it is all marketing BS. You have to base your decisions on their actions, which are essentially:

1) Loyalty doesn't matter and United will continue to devalue MP (except GS).
2) Instead of MP being a loyalty program, it is a profit center.
3) We don't care that you spent $3K on an international ticket. We would rather take an extra $400 from someone who spent $1000 and upgrade them, than upgrade a 1K with a GPU.
4) United makes more profit from credit cards then it does from the airline business.

As other airlines do the same thing, it will become much easier for all of us to move around. I have flown a lot on American and Delta this year (which will likely cost me GS on United, but who cares). In the past I would have avoided them because of the 1K benefits. Now I am treated just as well on American or Delta with no status (I will just buy up to stretch seating and priority boarding for $29) as I am on United as a 1K.

Over time this will hurt United. They are moving from a mini-monopoly on their hugely-loyal fliers to a 100% competitive environment. In 5 years there will be a case study about how the airlines pushed away their most profitable customers.

RNE

I'm with you there. United's duplicitousness is despicable.

I'm not with you there. Flying is about more than one's own experience. My "loyalty" to United can be explained in two letters: MP

In 2015:

• I'm using MP award miles to fly my wife RT to LAX.
• I'm using MP award miles to fly my wife RT to SFO.
• I'm using MP award miles to fly our son RT to MUC.
• I'm using MP award miles to fly our nephew RT to LAX.
• I'm using MP award miles to upgrade myself to BF to MUC and back.
• And the year is still young.
• I'm awash in hundreds of thousands of MP miles.
• I have two RPUs available to use in 2015.
• I'm sitting on tens of thousands of Flexible PQMs.
• I'm not subject to the 4-segment requirement.
• I'm not subject to the PQD requirement (short of 1K, which I'd never reach anyway).
• Chase showers me with award miles and let's me churn cards like a milkmaid does butter.

Yes, it sucks that elite benefits are being disinherited, but I'm often on the same flights as my kin, so that's moot. The devaluation in miles hardly affects the all-UA-metal bookings I tend to make. In short, I fly united because I (still) like MileagePlus.

As I said, my flying is more than about me.