spin88

In an ideal world I agree with you, but few, if any, airlines operate this way. A traveler who pays 45 c/mi and flies 100,000 miles a year is immensely more important than a traveler who pays 10 c/mi and flies 30,000 miles in a year. One ought to get upgrades and white glove service, the other ought to be treated with respect, and get exactly what they paid for, but ought not to expect flexibility.

Just as a business matter, having agents who have worked long enough, and are well paid enough, to really know their job, costs 3-4-5x as much as just sending the calls to India, and costs 2x what having less senior and well paid agents take the calls. A smart company ought to - within reason - prioritize calls from existing valuable customers as well as those it IDs as valuable potential customers. United seems to have lost this basic understanding of how to succeed as to those below GS, but also at times has lost it with GS as well.

bldr1k

Continuing my rant (sorry) - this is the behavior United is encouraging. Flying tomorrow on an expensive refundable coach ticket. T-24 and I'm not upgraded even though there are seats left. So I went on to the web site and changed my flight to the same flight, except searching for first class. Confirmed in P and I get a $200 refund since it is cheaper than my coach ticket.

This is business analytics at its worst and is going to cost United profit. This is probably the 15th time this year I've done this.

John Aldeborgh

It's funny but at McDonalds if you walk up to the counter and say they made a mistake with your order they, without hesitation, will make it right. This is customer service correctly implemented, and yes McDonalds isn't an airline but they understand customer service, which is fundamental in any highly rated consumer facing business. An RPU has virtually no cost to UA so there is only downside in not immediately giving you a credit to your account. Based on the amount of time you spent on the phone, this was a lose-lose for bot UA and you.

ani90

And McDonald's will do this for every customer...you don't need to be a platinum customer and guzzle big Macs for breakfast lunch and dinner to get this service. But for United only the higher level elite are seemingly entitled to good customer service. No company will do well just focusing on a tiny minority of clientele, even if they bring a lot of revenue as the public reputation and perception requires satisfying the majority. And it is the 95 percent and not the top 5 percent that will lead to the company's downfall. Sort of like politicians who focus on the elite and privileged but forget the masses. If united does not improve it's customer service for all, but focuses good service on GS, soon the GS will have no airline to fly or will sit in the planes on their own...

Terence.Hill

I could not agree more and I am happy I bolted at the right time last year. The most important GS benefits for me always were 1) the Saver Economy tickets from T conversion, upgrading 2 TATL/TPAC trips per year for me and my wife with my usual 8 GPUs; 2) the dedicated GS line with competent and empowered GS agents as well as 3) the domestic CPUs. All three deteriorated materially.

1) Economy saver tickets through T conversion were less and less available on UA metal (and almost impossible to find on non-stop TATL/TPACs) and increasingly only on partner airlines where they are not upgradable with GPUs. So my choices usually were 70k mls for a GPU wait-listed std. economy on UA metal or 70k mls for a business saver on a partner airline. I do not need to be a GS to get those choices.

2) The GS agents became very restrained in what they were allowed to do. When I needed award tickets to be changed because the system generated intl. connections of 8+ hours or less than 1h and I wanted a reasonable connection time in the hub, then this was either not possible for them to do or "the system wanted another 20k mls from me", either for increasing the connection time from 1h to 3h or for reducing it from 8h to 3h. I found myself using my few Delta miles instead for the domestic legs. The last straw was a GS agent who did not want to wave the change fee for upgrading to a higher fare class.

3) CPU success rates dropped markedly. I can live with that and I am happy to pay for domestic upgrades. What I cannot live with and feel insulted bt is that those are available for less to customers with a lower status/loyalty.

I am now *G through 1MM, fly TATL/TPAC J on LH/SQ/CX and pay domestic upgrades on UA but mostly on VX/AS.

These were the only reasons why I paid UA for a TATL/TPAC J, which was more a premium economy plus through the 8-abreast lie flats and could otherwise not hold a candle against J products from CX/SQ/LH.
I am wondering if UA thinks that Polaris will improve the competitiveness of their J product materially enough to make up for the dilution of GS status. Not for me !

bldr1k

I've talked to several people at United recently (not agents but much more senior people) and everyone is saying the same thing about Scott Kirby. Basically he says all this great stuff but really is only interested in cutting costs (e.g. GS benefits) and maximizing revenue. Obviously they need to run a business and can do whatever they want, but United has a lot of competition and not really that great a product, so for people who spend a lot, there are many options.

belfordrocks

They couldn't tell from when he transformed America West to the 2008-2011 US Airways?

spin88

I really don't understand the business plan. HP/LCC was kept afloat because the unions were warring, and so did not get raises. If HP/LCC had been paying AA/UA/DL wages they would have liquidated, never made a dime. Now he is dealing with wage rates and a complex network, and he has to get higher revenues than HP/LCC ever got. Yet, the only things he has done are (1) a messed up BE fare structure, which cost them revenue - just as some of us predicted, (2) further reduce soft product quality, cutting back on the Polaris improvements, (3) rolling out yet more ultra-tight Y product, and (4) now bringing back more crj-200s.... The contrasts between the CO turn around under Bethune with improved product and FF benefits and the UA's stabilization under Tilton with new customer friendly leading products (PS, E+, enhanced MP benefits) could not be clear.

United is not going to win back lost HVFers and "unmanaged traffic" with a bunch of service and product cuts.

aCavalierInCoach

I don't know... converting T, priority security, priority boarding, and tarmac transfers pretty far outweigh just about all the other benefits for me. 2/4 of those are UA only (at least I don't think AA flagship spits you out at the front but maybe it does -- would matter, anyway, at SFO).