Agree 100%

Ma and Pa Kettle do not fly for miles, they fly for price. That is why Spirit, Allegiant and Sun Country are making record profits. If UA is $500 RT and Allegiant is $495 - most Kettles will choose Allegiant or fly WN for $700 because they believe WN is always the lowest price and you can check your bags for free.

And kettles love to pack everything including the kitchen sink. :)

For me the biggest issue as a domestic 1K was the lack of upgrades. I buy flights a week or two out, usually in the Q->H fare range. Not the most expensive but not cheap. I dont like their policies that have me sitting in coach when I've flown more and spent more than 90% of those in F. I'm not sending $20K+ to UA to sit in coach 70% of the time, if it was 30% of the time, that may be different.

if i'm paying $400/yr for a UC membership, a great first step would be to have chairs [plural] that look like this in UCs replaced (this is at SFO T3).

http://i.imgur.com/95ZBECx.jpg


if i had a chair like this in my basement, it'd go in the garbage. if i ran a retail operation and had a chair like this in my business, i'd be fired.

it's a systemic problem (and perhaps a 'culture' problem) that's definitely not limited to chairs in SFO.

Well, if people weren't such slobs it would look better. I can only wonder if the people who make these messes have houses that look the same or only do it in the club because it is not their furniture. But why throw in the garbage? Just clean them once in a while. Much cheaper than buying new all the time.

Jeff's upgrade policies really hit the "middle class" at UA. He's a lawyer (nothing wrong with lawyers) and a very smart guy, but got paid $10m and has never worked a ticket counter or probably even flown coach. He doesn't get that transactions aren't done individually.

Getting a $50 upgrade from ma and pa kettle is $50 more than giving a 1k an upgrade. So the business traveler (to make 1k you have to put all your travel on one airline) took their expensive business travel with them and left (myself included). Jeff has been trading dimes for dollars.

You can't run an airline via spreadsheet. I've voted with my feet, if it gets better I might be back. But that would require transparency, especially when it comes to upgrades and fare availability.

I agree with that 100%

Great suggestions, espcially about SFO UC. I dont even bother sitting there. But I must respectfully disagree on these two. I would say improve FC, not can it. Also no need to cut C seats but again improve the product. Of the 747s C class I flew this year, almost all the seats were sold, very few upgrades.

For intl flights only upgrades inside t-24 show up on the list (changed maybe a year or so ago to this). I'm sure there are no shortage of overall upgrades.

OP, missing from your list was direct routes. Maybe my home airport is unusual, but it seems lately I cannot get direct United routes, but can get a direct route from an alternative mainstream carrier. Traveling every week I value my personal time, so United looses more revenue.

They will .... to one of the carriers you have listed above.

If not for free upgrades and mileage deals why take the risk of paying for UA service on routes other airlines fly? Why wage $4000 on the experiment if UA can offer a decent biz product? Preying on the segment of the dumb, patriotic rich doesn't smell like a very viable business model.

The whole game does however change and flying UA makes a lot of sense if you can buy M or D and have a very high chance to ride C or F ... and this is still how UA runs. They do attract business class customers buy baiting them with the decoy of F upgrades.

Business class customers buy it when they want it. There was a 3-4 year period where people got used to getting it on upgrades 80%+ and thought this was the norm - now it isn't, and you are getting trumped by dollars.

If you playing the upgrade game get used to 30% upgrades - no matter how much you fly.

There's nothing wrong with montipetizing upgrades, it's the fact they are letting kettles buy up and not elites. PmUA had and AA still has a nice system by which you earn or buy ecerts in 500 mile increments (not to mentioned confirmed regionals). Upgrading a Y to F rt ORD-SFO added up to $400 and was only available to 2P+. On 60-70k BIS I easily spent $2000+ extra a year on e500 booklets in addition to paid F and C and easily had an 80% upgrade rate when I had Y or was flying work companions, friends and family with me. The UDU lie / over promise topped up with kettle buy ups is insulting and infuriating and definitely a game changer when it comes to driving away your 25-75k flyers that would easily meet the 1k spend threshold.

Nice thing is that AA still gets this and you also still get 100% bonus;). Why anyone below GS that was pmUA would fly COua is a mystery

1. Pricing- Rarely i find UA pricing to be competitive out of SFO to China/HKG/Taiwan/Japan. I have flown 4 trips out to asia this year and 0 on UA. Because UA cost higher than likes of SQ, ANA, and BR. I am finally going to take one trip on UA this year to TPE via HKG. The direct flight SFO to TPE on UA was $7200 and BR was only $5500. But i need PQD so instead i was able to find decent fair to HKG at $5000.

I just won't pay $1700 more for worse service and lousy timing.

2. Hardware- I hate UA J-class seat in 772 and 744. Barely wider than economy seat and extremely hard to get in and out.

3. Food and service needs to improve.

Honestly, if you want any service from this airline you need to be GS. 1K's are not important - after all our qualification is based on miles not cash, and all know how new UA views that measure.

Interesting - I made the exact mirrored experience.

I used to have 14 years of 90%+ upgrades and then it sharply dropped in 2012 so that I stopped flying UA from mid 2012 to the end of 2013. My first few tries 2014 (after strong recommendations from friends and colleagues) were a 100% success rate. So I am somewhat willing to give UA a cautious try again.

But for the bulk of my travel, I will stick with 'my' OneWorld.