STS-134

UA has to walk a fine line here. Is inflating the ranks of 1Ks a good thing? Well, I think that largely depends on how they implement upgrades. The problem with the way things are done now is that GS and 1K get all of the CPUs while everyone else gets nothing. While at first glance this looks like it's good for business (giving all upgrades to your best customers), this isn't good when you consider that UA needs Silvers and Golds to care about making status in the same way that they need the people buying low Y fares just as much as they need the people buying full F fares.

About 5-10 years ago, a Silver did have a decent chance at getting a CPU on flights to leisure locations because the pricing of premium cabin fares were so high, nobody bought them. UA has apparently now decided that they'd rather sell the premium cabin fares outright and get more revenue that way, but the problem with that is that even GS and 1K are missing CPUs. People also have reported buying W fares only to have their GPUs not clear. The problem, of course, is that without throwing freebies every now and then to elites, there isn't much of a reason to be 1K or GS.

What they need to do is block off some seats for CPU/RPU/GPU upgrades, and ensure that people's upgrades clear, at least part of the time. And they need to put an element of randomness into the upgrade process to allow a Silver to CPU at least once in a while. How I would do this is to give each person a certain number of upgrade "credits". Think of a "credit" as similar to a raffle ticket. All elites get credits, but GS gets the most credits and Silvers get the least. Want to encourage people to spend more? Give a certain number of credits per dollar spent; the exact number varies by elite tier. So, for example, a GS could get 20 credits per $ spent while a 1K gets 10, a Platinum gets 8, a Gold gets 5, and a Silver gets 2. Before the flight, you pick raffle tickets at random (this can be done by computer) to determine who gets the upgrade. Thus, a Silver can have the same chance of being upgraded on a given flight as a GS, but he or she would have to spend 10 times more to do it. In practice, the GS is likely to be on a much higher fare and would have a much greater than 10x chance of being upgraded than the Silver, but at least the Silver has a chance, especially if on a higher fare.

Baze

You are basically describing the e-500's from pmUA era. Wish UA would go back to them as you picked and chose this upgrades you wanted the most and weren't even in the running for the ones you didn't want.

STS-134

That is another option that would work. The more you fly, the more e-500s you get, and the more upgrades you can get. Actually, I think that's better, because the company would look at e-500s as liabilities and it's a good thing to get liabilities off the books (as opposed to CPUs which don't get rid of liabilities and the bean counters view them as an inefficient use of a premium seat, preferring to get revenue by selling them outright).

Hipplewm

Who the hell is going to track all that stuff

I work for a small company, we have one beancounter and the owner.

Fewer cancellations....LOL

I routinely book 2-3 tickets for consecutive days just in case stuff changes, plus on the back end when I leave a job, I book tickets every day based on when the job might end, then cancel unused. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have flown Christmas Eve. I can't imagine trying to track what money goes where?

You are also asking paying customers to pay extra fees to cover the fact that non paying customers had a false alarm and made me buy a plane ticket, then ultimately had me not fly.

What you say sounds great, but I just don't see how it would work in practice. Also, we already charge 15%, so we would have to go to 30% to have extra for the fund.

I called my boss earlier today and asked him, he laughed at me.

DCA writer

This new policy--especially as it intersects with the PQD requirement--has me seriously thinking of paying for a seat up front for only the second time in my life. I need to get back from AUS in the middle of March, and there's an A fare that's only $25 more than what I'm paying to go there the week before. And the alternative to that is a G fare that, while $200 less, will also depress my spend and doom my chances of an upgrade clearing on the IAH-DCA A319.

Should I feel dirty about being manipulated so easily?

stimpy

Resistance is futile. You shall be assimilated.

bldr1k

I hated the e500s. Back 15 years ago they were $50 each and I had to spend $200 to upgrade one way DEN-NYC.

In most cases now, the difference between a coach fare and first class is less than $200 for me, so I am much better off just buying first.

Mike Jacoubowsky

But you also earned e500s, based on how much you flew. You only had to pay to sit in F if it meant something to do so (and you had run out of e500s); you could allocate them according to your own preferences, not United's.

Regarding price differences, back then you could buy the cheapest fare and know the total cost of an upgrade up-front. Now, you don't know the price United is going to offer you until after you've bought the ticket.

physioprof

My sense is that UA is assiduously attempting to monetize the value that people attribute to the avoidance of this kind of uncertainty.

ani90

I am not sure there are many left who care that much to make silver status. People will care about gold status independent of these changes because the benefits of being gold apply not just to UA but round the star alliance and are rather (incrementally) significant. Keeping upgrades by CPU or non-mileage instruments restricted mostly to Plat, 1K and GS; together with the new increase in PQM will encourage golds and plats to fly more (business fares) to allow them reach that next level with upgrade benefits. I don't see how UA would lose much from this change and if anything they might see marginal growth in business travel from elites who aspire FF status.

Plane-is-home

Agreed. Time to get rid of silver, cc benefits outweigh the silver benefits anyway.

Mike Jacoubowsky

If UA Silver gets better treatment during irrops, that's a huge benefit not offered by CCs. If.

bldr1k

Does the CC get you into e+ for free?

sapguy

Silver gets free checked bags & E+ for free.

These are minimal benefits because of Silver's minimal contributions to UA.

The occasional CPU clearing would be a miraculous bonus worth celebrating!

Seems like quite a few people agree with my strategy to buy up to discounted F so it appears that UA is getting the exact behavior that it wants from people like us who can pay for discounted F.

It would also appear that RPUs will be harder to clear in 2016 if lots of people choose to buy discounted F. As for GPUs, the most popular routes will be challenging but many routes will still offer opportunities.

Welcome to United Mileage Plus 2016, when PQD could be increased to $15K by the end of the year to requalify for 1K in 2018. It has been long overdue to base Elite status on revenues and not on BIS.

dank0014

Agree next year is going to be brutal for any chance of upgrades for 1Ks with this change. More RPU/GPUs in the marketplace, most likely an increase in number of 1Ks as it will be easier to obtain, and with cheap F fares and TODs limited supply. Basically demand will be up and supply will be down.

I would support UA being the game changer and increasing PQD for $5k for each level making 1K $20k. Make your elite program truly elite.

This change to me feels like what Marriott does by basically handing out status.