UA-NYC

How do you explain SPG or Hyatt winning any awards then, given that they're dwarfed by Marriott/Hilton/IHG?

sbm12

Randy Petersen retired for that window. His org owns the name so the alternate name was used during those two years. Since then he's come out of retirement and put the name back. I was one of the organizers for the event during that 2 years in the middle.

Agreed.

Because that would cost a lot more to do. Plus you're still just measuring what people think about the only program they know.

Same reason El Al or Accor won a few: They solicit votes from their members and get them. I think that this year they said the votes only really counted if a voter included more than one program in the rankings, so someone just voting for Marriott wouldn't count but if they vote for Marriott and Hyatt it would.

SwisherTown

The Freddie Awards are a really great thing for the Freddie Awards. As noted above potential awardees with millions of people in their program who solicit votes tend to do well in the awards. Statistically, it is not a random sampling.

transportbiz

+1

United's saving grace was the MP program, I stayed through all the years of trouble, solely because of redemptions and earnings (was pretty POed when they dinged me the same $200 for a schedule change that they would a kettle, so can add benefits to the list). But, the program was good, and partners like LH and NH I really liked.

Just since January, I've seen redemptions on MP become a joke, entire months on the calendar search show up as white boxes, the only business boxes are actually mixed cabin, where the flight from LAX-SFO is in First and the flight from SFO-FRA is in economy...stupid that it even shows as a Business award at all.

LarkSFO

His base compensation has not changed since 2011 - $975,000.00

The rest is Stock Awards and performance based bonus. Does the annual report detail either of these categories, and the criteria for earning / not earning them?*

He's still making less than he did in 2011 ($13.4 million), after his compensation decreased in 2012 and 2013.

* If somebody woudl like to wade through this: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...e_compensation

"Compensation Philosophy. A number of these financial and operational highlights are directly tied to performance under our executive compensation program awards, and specific links to our awards are noted above. Our compensation philosophy continues to be based on achieving the following objectives:

• aligning the interests of our stockholders and executives;

• linking executive pay to performance; and

• attracting, retaining and appropriately rewarding our executives in line with market practices.

The 2014 executive compensation programs were designed to directly link compensation opportunities to the financial and operational performance metrics that we believe are appropriate measures of success in our business: annual pre-tax income, long-term pre-tax margin performance improvement relative to our industry peers, ROIC, stock price performance and customer satisfaction."

**Bolding mine

Shareholder

Why the surprise? With the changes to MP last year how could it win Best FF Program or Best Elite Program? Going revenue, dumping RDM earnings and raising the redemption price on STAR premium awards pretty much nailed the coffin shut. Ae for elite benefits, what are they? Hardly anyone under GS gets CPUs any more. Silvers no longer get E+ until OLCI. SWU upgrade inventory is zero'd out until very close to flight date if not at the gate.

AA deserved winning given it has not decimated its FF program, still gives RDMs based on distance and has not gone revenue-based. Its elite program has not been watered down and upgrades are achievable even by lower tier elites. And unlike UA which has really downgraded 1Ks, AA still piles it on for ExecPlats. Will this last...who knows?

MP has gone the way of Aeroplan, once the best FF program in two years it became one of the worst!

mike1968

Wonder if / when Chase starts getting agitated as it doesn't look like their card fared well either. I would have to think they are seeing a material decline in United card revenue as those leaving cancel cards or switch purchasing volume to their new carrier's card or what've mile earning option best suits them.


Probably not a good bridge to burn ahead of the next downturn given the co-branded lifeline is an essential part of the long-term airline survival game during a cyclical downturn or worse.

LarkSFO

Any factual basis for this speculation, besides what you may have done individually, and what you read here on FT?

I have no idea either, by the way.

It would be nice if UA broke out a lot more numbers and statistics for us to review.

Same goes for Chase.

I don't expect it to happen though. Only huge ones with material impact (AMEX losing Costco) will be broken out / divulged.

sbm12

Chase cares a lot more about the number of sign-ups and the volume of transactions.

Really? I'd bet the opposite.

For those saying that UA and DL are getting bad scores because they went revenue-based how do you reconcile that with the fact that WN has been revenue-based for 4 years now and is still winning? Seems there are a whole bunch of customers who are plenty happy with revenue-based programs.

kmfdm91

I hope this is the case...I've already voted with my wallet and am only burning my remaining RDMs on MP with NON-UA partners...

I'm going to cancel my UA MP Chase card in the next few days (I've had since 2005), and will be then replacing it with in a few weeks, a:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card to get miles that can be transferred to a bunch of carriers, including UA, so no loss for me at all, plus i'll be gaining 40k sign-up bonus, and I'll get that ugly UA off my Credit Card

-jeremy

LarkSFO

If you have a 2005 vintage card, it may have some benefits you might not want to give up... Assuming you may - oh the drama - come back to UA some day.

Which specific card is it?

bocastephen

Ah yes, the fallacy that United, or any airline for that matter, has this collection of "big spenders" in its back pocket that render the balance of customers irrelevant. Sure, UA has a small number of folks who only buy top dollar fares, but even a large number of GS customers are here on FT complaining about many of the same things that bother 1Ks, Platinums and depending on the issue, everyone else.

A frequent flyer program matters - if an airline thinks it can survive and prosper by catering to a tiny number of true HVF who don't weigh a loyalty program in their decision making, well, that's a foolhardy decision. No business succeeds with that strategy.

BearX220

You can't fly to profit on the backs of two percent of the customer base and dismiss everyone else. An FF program may not influence the top echelon much, but it's crucial to retaining the broad middle. UA is throwing insane piles of miles at HVFs who need them least, and starving middle-tier flyers who used to stick with UA because of MP.

Always Flyin

Amusing how many throw out these wholly unsubstantiated claims to justify the extraordinarily poor decision to remain with UA.

Firstly, AA has given absolutely zero indication that it will go to a revenue based program or that it will reduce its program to more closely mirror UA or DL.

Secondly, even if AA does so, I will have received two years of a better program than if I remained with UA, which has already significantly reduced the attractiveness of its program.

Uh, huh. We've seen those kind of enhancements from UA the past couple of years.

Taking away 10 and giving back 5 is still a net loss of 5. That's what this UA does, at best.

Throwing more miles at a small percentage of its flyers (most of whom probably have zero choice in who they fly anyway), but upped its mileage redemption levels, significantly, at the same time.

But don't tell Rainey you don't think it works. After all, he's savvy.

kb1992

+1

Well said.