Any Fallout from Conversion from 3-Class to 2 Class?
 

I apologize if this topic is already covered in another thread (and most certainly understand if the Moderator deletes or consolidates this thread), but are there any thoughts or actual experiences about future or current fallout from those such as UA1Flyer, Mr. Pillows, members of the CEO Club, celebrities and others who are accustomed to flying GF to when UAL eliminates GF and the entire international fleet goes to "Polaris"? Or, will loyalty and lack of competition on a particular route triumph?

Tentacle Snr who is a GS and does 150k BIS in GF every year

Having GF meant having a near 100% chance of having a premium seat available for last minute purchase on nearly any route which is of high value
He frequently has less than 4 hours of notice of when he has to travel INTL and GF is always cheaper than private jet
He is thinking of using LH/SQ/NH a lot more but is slightly worried about losing GS

If he starts flying LH/LX/SQ/NH in First, he'll quickly forget what GS even meant, and will regret not doing it sooner.

The big benefits of GS he'd be giving up are PN space for upgrade certificates, and the award ticket benefits (opening up saver space for a companion, T to XN, GPU on award ticket). If he doesn't use these, then whatever good treatment he enjoyed on UA he will get and then some flying paid F on those carriers.

GS on UA has meant he is able to have UA overbook GF/BF for him multiple times a year

Things that matter to him
1. Will overbook a flight to get him on in a premium cabin
2. Schedule out of SFO to direct international locations
3. Wifi
4. Seat and bed comfort and privacy
....
50. Food
...
99. Service

My wife and I are GS, and we have seen absolutely no evidence whatsoever that UA will oversell a premium cabin to get a GS member a seat, and we have tons of evidence that they will not. Can you provide more information about this claim?

For myself at 6'6" seat was the reason for GF. I have already moved a lot of my international flying away from UA in order to get a long enough seat. With them continuing to reduce GF my spending with UA will be reduced accordingly.
Unfortunately LH is no help either having removed FC from both flights out of DEN.

Exactly. And while they say the Polaris seat dimensions mirror that of GF, I found the seat to be very tight, including the cubby for your feet. Add to that the fact that you are on a 60 person assembly-line for meals and you're left with a pretty mediocre experience.

They made MUC-IAD 2 class as well.

Row 1 window seats have a lot of space on 77W

Why doesn't his company (or whatever concern is involved here) simply book refundable tickets farther in advance any time there is even the smallest chance that travel would be required? And then cancel them? That seems like a much easier solution than distorting one's travel. After all, isn't that what refundable tickets are for? Having 4 hours notice of anything seems like you're the last one being notified of the situation.

Not without identifying him, There is a corporate contract involved which is part of the reason

He is one of 3 experts left alive in the world on a specific piece of technology
When said thing breaks... he is called up and asked to be at location x as quickly as possible as outages can cost in excess of $100k per hour
When he is called in... its generally because Level1-4 have tried and failed for a day or more to fix it

4 hours is a matter of how long it takes the locally run private air firm to get him from his location in OR down to SFO

Thus... he never knows where in the world he is going and for how long and when... ~$10k one way tickets have been the solution for some time now

The loss of GF in real terms apparently means (from previous posts on other threads) that people over 6'6" are best off picking a different airline rather than flying Polaris. I always thought GF was a poor product anyway (compared with say LH F). However but for the few rev customers it will unfortunately impact, I think it was a smart business decision to get rid of it

I agree, however It depends what seat you get - some have less protrusions into the seat space making the seat area feel bigger and there are 3 different types of foot well

Well, you can't really fly around a cabin full of seats that only sell a small % of the time and the rest are given to employees and sometimes FFs.

that worked in the days of 50% load factors, not today.

Depending on how much you charge for those seats, it could still make sense.

Since it's not a GS perk, and instead a contractual benefit, why chase GS status.

From the top 4 priorities you listed earlier, sounds like he's best served being airline agnostic and flying UA, or *A partners, when available and most convenient, and flying all the other great F/J options out there (CX, EK, EY, etc.) for the other times.

Side note: his job sounds both cool and crazy.

OK, so then this has nothing to do with him being GS per se, and is not a datapoint suggesting that overbooking premium cabins is something made available on the basis of GS status.

GS for the handling and support and service has been well worth his time
I have called many times on his behalf to help him organize things for his own flights (Problem fixed, goes to sleep after being awake for 3-4 days and wants a way to get home when he wakes up)

Job is very crazy and I think he loves his semi-retirement

ME3 are less efficient time wise at the moment for any of his common destinations of Europe/north asia/ south asia
Flying though FRA/LHR/MUC then onto a private plane to final destination
or NRT/SIN and a short comercial flight are the most common results

He was told previously that they only did it for him because contract and GS status/history

I could easily believe its not a defined perk though, I am happy to stand corrected

That is one heck of a contract! I've never heard of this happening before and agree with the previous poster that his work sounds fascinating...

Very interesting!
I would just suggest that when any customer reaches the end of Level 2 support, the company immediately book him a ticket farther in advance, on the chance that it will get more serious and need his help...

From a financial perspective, First Class rarely makes sense. Profit per square foot, given the space requirement, is a fraction of business class (which is actually itself smaller than [true] premium economy). The demand just isn't there, except maybe on a handful of routes, which is why you're seeing more and more carriers (even premium overseas ones -- LH, AF, CX, QR) reduce where they offer FC.

To expand on this, CX removed F from their Oceania routes. They don't send it to the Gulf and their Japan routes have also lost much of it—I think there's one HND frequency that still has F, but it may have been discontinued recently. Their A359 is two-cabin so that's another batch of routes that don't have F.

QR only has it on a tiny handful of EU routes.

LH has been slowly dropping F for years, especially ex-MUC but some FRA routes have lost it as well. DEN was already mentioned. All MUC-based A333s lost F and none of their A350s have been delivered with F. IIRC their upcoming 777x orders won't feature F either.

Frankly for LH and AF, the most compelling part of F is the ground service. On routes from North America to Europe, most people in F want to sleep, so the elaborate meal on board is silly, and its just the way back where its really nice.

LH could simply sell "HON service" for however much and you'd get the "HON terminal/lounge" and limo transfers.

regarding the disappearing UA PF/GF .. I am going to miss the seat/bed. Meal service was always meh... and in the future I would route through ORD for GRU and use the lounge to grab a good meal in order to maximize sleep time during flight.

More personalized service in F was nice.. but sometimes that was hit or miss and not a factor for me.

Right, and even some of the very/ultra-long-hauls don't have it, like YYZ, some YVR, and some SFO.


True, but the food isn't really a huge part of the cost base, and they probably do have more limited catering (or less over-catering) on the shorter redeyes. The alcohol costs may be more substantial, but pax will still probably have a glass of champagne or something.

Air France actually does sell this, only if you're on a (long-haul) flight that doesn't offer First Class. I think it's €300. Likely covers the incremental operating costs, but I don't think you could do that stand-alone without some $5-10k o/w fares, certainly not at that price point.