garkster

I think some of the opinions expressed above are a bit naive, and/or reflect inexperience with legacy EDP systems (that's what they were once called). Having ancient data in deep archive storage is relatively inexpensive -- making it as available as the current data can get very expensive.

Why pick on United? Every financial institution I deal with as a consumer limits how far back you can query transaction history (not even close to what's suggested), and that's what we're talking about here, as each flight segment would be considered a transaction in a database (or file system). Putting aside the mergers and changes of system platforms, to expect that you could readily query 30+ year-old data (dating back to the beginning of Mileage+) borders on the realm of silliness.

And, given that a significant number of us are in tech and software, how many have actually sat in a design meeting or seen a requirements document where it was stated that data must be easily retrievable 30 years on? Other than Social Security, which had the concept of a long earnings history from its inception, I don't recall seeing published and/or queryable consumer-oriented history that shows more than a few years.

In your personal life, are those 8-track tapes still working for you?

AndyInSaigon

Good post. Thank you.

kirkwoodj

Agreed, this is serious nitpicking.

Zappity

All the detailed old Data exists, but it's on a backup data tape somewhere and not readily accessible. When they switched over, they just summed up everyone's lifetime mileage and current-year history under the old system and applied it to their new account and the old system was "sunset".

Indelaware

Allegheny's re-branding had little to do with its pre-deregulation M&A -- the most recent of which was 7 years prior to the re-branding. It changed its name/brand in order to have better marketing appeal as they flew west.

Northwest Airways, Inc. changed its name to Northwest Airlines, Inc. in 1933. "Northwest Orient" was simply a D.B.A. alias used for marketing reasons.

Northwest Airlines acquired Republic Airlines (not Republic Airways). Republic Airlines was, itself a merger, first of North Central Airlines (hubs at DTW, ORD, MSP) and Southern Airways (hubs at ATL & MEM). Republic Airlines then acquired Hughes Airwest (hubs at BFI, PHX, LAS, LAX, PDX, SFO, and SLC) before being absorbed into crosstown rival, Northwest.

Maybe its better that UA focuses on running an airline rather than being a file clerk for statements which, IMO, should be saved by the flyer.

kop84

This is one of those problems that sounds reasonable if you think about it on an individual level..."I have flown XX times it's not that big a deal to show me my entire travel history" And you're right, it's probably not that big a deal to show you your entire travel history...

The problems arise when you need to have everyone's entire travel history. I can't imagine the size of the server you would need to have all that data accessible online. Plus out of the millions of flyers, how many people would ever actually look at it? (If you take out FT'ers)

bob_the_d

why are people picking on united? that one's pretty easy. before the merger, it was something you could request just by asking for a purge print. i never had one myself, but i've seen them and they were neat to have. now we can't get them. nobody likes having things taken away whether you used them or not.

i'm actually pretty surprised the three letter agencies aren't asking for all this to be available for some bizarre reason that likely doesn't make sense. seems like a task with dubious usefulness that would have been asked in the name of safety. :shrug:

i'm in the data and analytics space as well, and there actually is usefulness of having a customer's full history readily accessible. there's cost effective ways of tiering it so the older stuff is on cheaper, yet seamlessly accessible, methods for analytical purposes. real time offer management and precision/predictive marketing would be things that would benefit from having an active customer's history.

although personally for united, i'll settle for "please oh please don't lose my reservation." this would be akin to installing a new fireplace while the entire foundation is falling apart. i actually kind of wish i had UA as an account. this is a company that could stand to benefit significantly from a solid and modern data replatforming. of course that sales process would probably be the sales process from hell, but it would be really cool to see if they'd invest in it.

TennisNoob

Hello all,

I was trying to find a recent thread after the merger about finding flight history.


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ld-get-17.html

Thread was pmUA, and was wondering if there's a way for me to find my old flight data.

Was an sCO OnePassPlus Member until the merger.

All flight data history on my account was purged.

Any advise appreciated!

TennisNoob

I emailed United asking for my flight history from sCO and UA.

The UA rep 2 days later responds that this information can be found in statements online (ua.com). She suggests a microfiche that can be done to pull data.

I write back asking her to go ahead and try to get me back as much flight history data as possible.

The next agent responds 17 DAYS LATER!

"In order to request archived data, we require a copy of the court requiring this information."

Is it still possible to obtain flight data or has United stopped doing it?
I'm trying to completely fill up my flightmemory map

FortFun

They got a lot less excited about doing this leading up to and after the merger. There's mention of the court order stuff as long ago as 2011 in the old thread here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...hould-get.html

avi8tir

Just curious as I am about to cross the 1MM threshold... is there any way to look back and see what my busiest years were?

tods27

Not unless you can get a court order according to this thread.

WineCountryUA

pmUA offered this upon request but since then it has not been generally available. Prior questions on this stated pmCO did not offer this data. The 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 activity is available in your account today.

FlyHighInTheSky

I recently tried to get this printout and was told that a court order was needed. I tried both the GS phone number and the MileagePlus Service Center. Same answer both places.

physioprof

It's probably a huge hassle for them to retrieve old years, involving some kind of offline backup system.