Phone Call from UA - Flight Activity
 

I received a call from UA today. It was a live individual and she was calling to discuss my flight activity as it appears that for the month of March, my travel on UA has dropped dramatically compared to previous activity and to inquire what may have resulted in the decline of travel.

She specifically asked the following questions (not word for word, but close):
We noticed a change on the number of future flights you have booked, is there any reason for this?
Are you booking flights with other airlines? Specifically airlines not within the Star Alliance?
What may have caused the change in your flying patterns?

Truthfully, I didn't really notice much change, so was taken back by the call. Looking back at my PQMs year over year for the 30 day period, I did see it is down by about 40%, but it's because my trip stays have been longer, verses flying back and forth as much.

Anyone else getting calls? Is this new?

Very surprised they picked up on this, and if this is a new norm, kudos to them for trying to catching their fliers and picking up on potential trends of business loss.

If/when I get the call, I can just tell them to peruse this forum to figure it out themselves.

ps. maybe just me, but I don't like volunteering info unless I get something in return.

If they aren't willing to make an offer of some kind, that would just show that they don't actually value the business. I don't know what it would take. 4 RPUs to take my wife on a nice trip would be a nice ante.

Obviously, someone in their analytics is noticing a drop in FF patterns. I assume the OP is a 1K (from their profile). As a 1K, I'd have to say that UA is more of a habit than anything else right now.

I think the economy isn't nearly as robust as people are making it out to be- and I think the airlines are notcing some softness in demand.

You can treat 1Ks like crap when you are filling Y all the time- but if your load factors start to drop off, Gold-to-1Ks may save your bacon.

I do have my 1MM invested in UA, so I do have a selfish reason to help them: an actual flyer-friendly UA is a lot more valuable to me than the Pravda version thereof. A UA with schedule integrity, high quality food, and comfortable seating even in Y is better than the direction they've been going.

I'll be amused if I get this call. I flew 68,000 in Jan and Feb (easily a record for me to start the year), but I have just one trip booked in March, and nothing for April or May. It's pure random consequence of work demands and the cricket world cup, that's all.

Seems odd, almost silly, that you would start to draw conclusions less than a fortnight into the month!

Perhaps if you tell them how you feel you'll get a better airline in return.

It's a cyclical business, indeed, and the apologists who claim the current appalling situation is the "new normal" are wrong. UA can treat good customers like garbage in boom times, but when the bottom drops out of this six-year bull market there will have to be a ceasefire in the war on elites.

I couldn't agree more. Especially when EVERY SINGLE phone call, web interaction, and sales receipt harasses me to evaluate my call or experience.

Spot checking by occasionally and randomly inquiring into customer satisfaction is one thing, but it's become the standard and I detest the extra step.

Aeroflot? Pravda is the newspaper. And that's the truth;)

Dosvyedanya...

It's not just you.

+1000 Could not agree more - "UA is profitable, so current management team must be doing something right" argument is off-mark, IMHO.

Running a profitable airline in boom times (and with bottom dropping out of the price of fuel to boot) is a lousy predictor of management performance.

If the call OP received indicates a change in the "new normal," on the other hand...

I am just an lowly over entitled 1K (under your importance). United doesn't care about me. 2014 I had over 85K in Jan, 100K by end Feb. This year I only have 57K as of March 1.
It's nice to hear they care about someone other than GS.
Congrats!

Or, as the old saying goes, "In Pravda there is no izvestia, in Izvestia there is no pravda".

Finally a smart cookie here. The data in your head is invaluable to an organization, especially your purchasing power decision process. I am with you a 1000%, my opinion for your gain is worth something, 5k miles for each opinion to start.

Thx for the laugh

Interesting. One of the items I use to conclude that United really doesnt care very much about the loyalty of its passengers is how infrequently these calls happen. Folks will be a 1K for a decade, Million Miler Plus, then stop abruptly and rarely a peep from Willis Tower. Even the place that changes the oil in my car hounds me if I don't return in xxx months.

With the layoffs that have been announced in the Houston oil industry and the free spending patterns of the industry when times are good, I have to believe the fortress hub of IAH is beginning to see demand softening for premium cabins to places like Lagos.