Baze

Not very many share your sentiment.

pdx1M

Most of this change is a no-op from my perspective as a LT1K but the ExPerk rule about being in the same region is the real killer. I don't understand why they imposed that. They could have just as easily kept the rest of the rules and simply said that the ExPerk part of the trip will price at 0 or the normal cost minus the preceding segment's cost. That would have avoided any games with a "cheap" segment followed by an expensive one - sort of like most merchants rules that BOGO offers make the cheaper item free. That would have kept the spirit of the stopover even in the many Asia cases (or US-Europe-Asia) without opening the door to games. It would have actually made the process simpler to explain overall and other than the fee changes (which are really a separate decision that they made) made the change more neutral.

stopdiabetes

How will this improve UA profits? Seems counterproductive on first blush. More customers leaving compensates for higher fees to be collected from who's left??

fzwinter

Thanks United! I was going to be a little under 75K PQM this year and was considering another flight to top off Plat status. But the only reason it was worth it to me was the ability to cancel award tix without fee. No that this perk is gone, I can save my money.

I'm also realizing that the other "enhancements" have contributed a lot to my frustration. Now instead of accumulating 36K RDMs for a SFO-SIN RT, I can now haul in a whopping 6K since I am pretty good at getting cheap fares. So this helps me with the $50 change fee predicament - I'm earning so many fewer RDMs for flying that I don't need to be booking so many award trips! That's a change I can live without!

jsloan

It depends upon where you want to stop. As written, it eliminates (free) stopovers in TYO unless your destination is inside Japan. You can't stop in SEL, BJS, or TPE on the way to MNL. You may be able to fly IAH-FRA-BOM but you can't stop in FRA. etc.

I think they were trying to eliminate "free one-ways" and stopping in Europe on the way from the US west coast to southeast Asia, but unless they restructure the regions, as written, it's a fairly Draconian change.

Halo117

I am positive the number of cancellations and changes performed by PLTs outweigh the number performed by general members...so they dropped lower tier fees and offset by charging PLTs...the 60 day rule is just punitive all around as UA knows availability will not be enhanced.

It goes like this...hey no charge to book under 60 days (if you can find availability), but we will charge you if you change it. AA hasn't outlined their 75K benefits yet, but I know even general members can make changes to dates for free.

I guess UA is trying to make some money back for all those status bumps they gave out this year!

mahasamatman

United has successfully removed any possible reason for me to ever try for Platinum.

Mike Jacoubowsky

I used to speak for the lowly 2P. Years later, I found a comfortable home at the Plat level. Who knew that the "lowly" part would eventually catch up to me, here at 75k PQM territory?

The overall devaluation of Silver, Gold & Platinum is massive. Actually, I can only speak to Silver & Platinum with any real authority; I haven't kept track of what's gone on with Gold. Starting next year, I certainly will though.

It is clear that the focus is on the Explorer CC holders, not the mid-tier flyers. We saw this begin with Boarding Group 2 for Explorer CC, and now, they've reduced award fees for that (huge) group, while instituting them, for the first time, for Plats. Premier Access too... the Explorer CC basically gets you most basic perks except E+. It won't surprise me at all to see an E+ CC arrive, something like the Club Card.

The card holders get more and more and more, while those who mid tier flyers get less and less and less.

I will admit that it comes at an opportune time for me. This would have been an extremely-tough year for me to make Plat, but I can get to Gold. I don't have to even consider a mileage run. The award fee waiver was huge for me, not just saving $$ but putting me completely at ease about making excellent use of my award miles. The drop to Gold just doesn't make that much difference. Yes, I lose a couple of RPUs, which I was having some difficulty using anyway.

Ironic that I type this 35,000 feet over Nevada, sitting in F. I had a coming & going SFO-DEN leg clear in F. I haven't had a worthwhile upgrade in 18 months (other than an unexpected op-up TATL). That has not bothered me. If United can sell the seats up front, they should. Plat has always been about the award utilization for my family. That and exceptional phone service. I suspect Plat phone agents won't be quite as helpful in the future, since they no longer share the 1K fee structure.

I'm thinking they ought to just do away with Plat entirely. Just offer a pair of RPUs when you hit 75k. Put us out of our misery.

raehl311

Did I miss something? Is there a CC benefit that reduces award change/cancel fees, or just booking fees?

kyte

I believe Mike is referring to the CC holders as the majority of people who may benefit from the updated fees as they are probably not Plat+. His view is that UA is 'focusing' on pandering to that group, rather than the upper tiers.

mduell

If you're booking $750++ RT fares for UA to haul you 20k miles, I think you're still winning that one.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Correct. When you reduce fees for award changes to non-elites, you're throwing benefits to Explorer CC holder (the vast majority of whom are not elites).

As United reduces the differential, it becomes questionable whether they even want them on the path to elites. Award inventory manipulation likely works better than price at filling planes, and clearly United makes money off the award program & relationship with Chase.

fragment54

The presentation of this clear reduction in benefits is nauseating. However, I think we can all agree that the change was made due to rampant multi ticket bookings with no intent to travel by platinum members. United isn't going to let a subset of credit card waiver platinums essentially steal money.

Edit: getting rid of the credit card waiver would have helped prevent this by getting rid of the mileage runners.

adambadam

Obviously disappointed in new Excursionist Rule replacing the stopover rule. Think it is ridiculous they are claiming a widely accepted/understood industry term is too confusing so they are replacing it with a made-up term with arbitrary rules. More disappointed by the way MP regions are set-up and the fact that it seems almost no thought went into how that affects the Excursionist Rule in a practical sense, especially in Asia.

I understand how they wanted to play down some of the abuses of the old system but I don't see how stopovers (other than free one-ways beyond your origin) really reel in some of those abuses if you don't change the routing rules too. In other words if you are still going to let people fly to Asia via Europe, as far as the airlines are concerned, you are still flying the exact same legs, stopover or not. Why take that away. On more logical routings, like flying UA from USA to Asia via Japan, having a stopover is even all the more logical.

I hope UA hears some of this feedback and reconsiders or at least groups certain MP regions into large Excursion Regions to make practical stopovers an option.

raehl311

I don't agree with that at all. It's the same story Delta came up with. If it were true, you would end up seeing a lot more availability of awards, and that didn't happen with Delta and I doubt it'll happen here.

Not to mention, you can only speculatively book travel in so much as you have the free miles to do so, and I doubt many fliers really have the miles to sit on that many seats.

And, if that REALLY was the problem, they could have done a cancel fee but no change fee.

It's a money grab, plain and simple.