Boghopper

Only scenario that interested me was the one where you could get the VIP services for 45% off by buying a drink and in flight internet. It would be fun to do with my kids. Otherwise the combination of prohibitive pricing and my expectation that whatever UA delivered would be subpar meant that I chose only the items I got as "free".

caiken

Contrary to most here, I like the Baggage Valet idea. One of the least desirable aspects of flying (IMHO) is fighting for overhead space. I fly F often, and even there, it is bad. Handling my bag to someone, who I imagine puts it on before anyone boards, sounds great. I would pay $20 for that. Then I could board dead last.

timfountain

You need to think about this in UA fuzzy logic, then it makes a lot more sense. I'll try. "Hmm, we sure aren't selling a lot of those Biz First seats now that we have gone to that 2-4-2 configuration. Also, it seems like all those over entitled 1K's that we have to give those RPU's to are just using them for upgrades and not actually paying for our wonderful BizFirst seats. I've got an idea, why don't we get rid of all bizfirst seats and install an E++ seat that we can sell for only $100 less than our biz first seats. It'll be great, we can pack 1.56x more seats in the same space and cut back on meals, drinks and amenities. I think we have a winner, get Jeff on the line....."

flyingnosh

I think UA is testing the waters, to see if it makes financial sense to get rid of first class on domestic flights and replace it with Premium Economy. Contrary to all the complaining here about lack of upgrades, I see lots of domestic flights where less than half the F seats are sold for cash.

goodeats21

I don't think so.

On the survey, all the pricing questions about a theoretical Premium Economy cabin were specifically noted to be a 6 hour international flight. Nothing at all intimated about domestic flights.

exerda

I also see lots of domestic flights where less than a quarter of the F seats are upgrades. Depends entirely on the route... @:-)

JBord

As goodeats21 said, the focus was international. UA is testing the waters all right, but it's all about the price point. You do this type of survey when you have a product, you know the price point where you make (more) money on that product, and you want to see if that price point aligns with demand.

If I were to guess, this would replace E+, or some combination of E+ and business seats, on international flights, and premiers would have to pay for it. Maybe GS and 1K would get the seat for free, but they're looking to make money on seats they give away for free today. They want to know if they can make $100 on each new seat or $300.

Singapore_Schwing

Wait a second. My survey had all the scenarios listed as a 4 hour domestic flight (and included all the same options). Perhaps there are more variables than we expected.

I thought it was funny, as I haven't bought a domestic itin in a year or so, but have bought transpacs several times.

JBord

Ahhh...so they are looking at both. Did you have all the same products listed in the original post? I wonder if they're looking at this for transcons only. I can't imagine much demand otherwise, but I could be wrong.

Garten

I'm not sure how you can tell. Are you counting B/M-ups as "sold for cash"? My guess is that they are pretty happy if they can get $750 a seat for a one-way transcontinental fare. The full first-class fare may be $1250 or even more, but they aren't necessarily expecting or needing to sell many of those to justify the cost of the first-class cabin. A first-class seat costs them less than twice what an E+ seat does, for sure.

ORDnHKG

Seems like everyone voted for premium economy, I actually vote for E+ enhanced instead, as if there is premium economy, then most likely is not affordable. Like NH for instance, between premium economy and lowest Y fare is close to or more than $1000 difference for TPAC flights.

Pre-order meal should be reinstated, PMUA did a trial on PS and 2 int'l routes, have no idea if it is a success or not, but I would definitely want to some pre-ordered premium meal in Y.

ORDnHKG

I disagree, premium economy is a product worth to explore as there are many companies willing to pay more in Y but not C.

I don't see any airline by selling installing and selling premium economy that is pushing frequent flyers further away at all, if not there wouldn't more and more airlines are installing premium economy, the latest ones are LH and SQ !

I am not sure what do you mean by "United is currently making my premier benefits less meaningful by selling them or by giving them away to others." I assume you didn't fly UA for that long, and PMCO didn't even have E+ before the merger. I had been flying PMUA even before UA had E+, back then nobody has E+ or premium economy other than BR and VS ! And PMUA had been selling E+ for more than 10 years now.

mre5765

Hats off to OP and others who who joined in on this April Fools prank. Very well done.

"pages were coded to prevent copying and pasting",lol.

The valet service from the UC to stow the carry on in the overhead was too far fetched.

Really thiugh. One of the more suvlte pranks. ^

ZZYZXROAD

Why is everyone so gullible? Date specific thread?

BearX220

Multiple sources report getting the survey, so if it's a prank it took a lot of energy.

The proposed upsells subdivide into:

1. New way to sell things they already sell (drink vouchers, prepaid food, wifi voucher, VIP bundle). These don't really take anything away from elites, but you'd have to trust UA to execute. Taking orders is easy; fulfillment is hard. UA is not built, operationally or culturally, to deliver personalized experiences that delight individual customers. They barely tolerate customers. I agree with this:

2. New prices on things they haven't sold before (airport concierge service for carryons, premium irrops recovery service, "inflight networking"). Dubious value there, and the irrops thing disadvantages elites IMO. Those things are either silly or controversial and disruptive. Imagine being a 1K who can't get attention after a cancellation or mechanical because a bunch of random people have prepaid $50 to cut in front of you. That will drive away more revenue than it brings in.

(UA used to reward top elites with queue-jumping strategies and services to lessen the impact of UA's bad performance. Now it's apparently considering asking customers to pay for the privilege of prompt recovery from bad performance. Wow. That's literally monetizing your own mediocrity.)

3. New products (true Premium Economy). If BA/CX/AF/VS etc. can execute this without self-harm, so can UA, but it hinges on UA developing an aspirational front cabin, which the others have and UA doesn't. If all you expect from a UA premium experience is more space -- and bad food, surly service, and late / cancelled flights are standard throughout -- PE will cannibalize BE and GF.

And the ancillary revenue souffle collapses in the next recession anyway, so this is all short/medium-term stuff.

Too true.