spin88

IMHO a bunch of things are going on:
(1) just generally people are now willing to be harsher, and less pleasant on-line. People have gotten used to anonymity, and allow (passive-)aggression to take flight.
(2) This forum has had some very aggressive posters at certain times, I'm not naming names, but I actually think there are less totally disagreeable people on this board today than at some times in the past.
(3) I think there are also just less posts at this point. The Mods will have an actual figure, but threads stay up longer in the top two pages w/o a new post than in the past.
(4) I think people are just less happy with the airlines, and with UA in particular, which has a very bad NPS at this point. A lot of that bleeds into things, some people get short/snarky.
(5) there is also also IMHO more defensiveness by some about the fact they fly UA, causes reactions one would not have seen in the past.

Finally, I just might add that I find the information flow useful, but the reality is that there is more to understand, and less benefits than in the past, so it is just less fun to figure out travel. I "found" FT at the time I was giving up on CO, and looking at OALs as I went back to UA. It allowed me to understand the - very real, and quite useful - benefits of 1K and then GS status. But the level of un-clarity in policies, the difficulty of using FF miles, the number of things I have to know and think about to fly UA and not be uncomfortable (e.g. don't fly the 77W, HD, the un-retrofited 772s and the 763/4 are fine) make the whole exercise harder. E.g. I just booked a summer family trip to Asia, cost me $5800 bucks, and about 6 hours of time. I had to determine the flights, what aircraft they were on (avoiding some airlines or some A/C on some airlines), then chase down the fare rules, then look at lounge options (lounges are key for my kids... ) and figure out where my benefits were useful, then I had to check multiple web-sites as the pricing varied, and then figure out what fare class the flights were to see if I would get FF credit, and how much. It was all quite the bother.

EmailKid

Um, while I tend to agree with many declining to pay extra, I would like to (respectfully) point out that the above "conversation" would more reflect competition with Spirit, i.e. for extra $10-20 you can buy up from Basic Economy to E-

Buying up to E+ tends to be a fair bit more than $15, ESPECIALLY from BE @:-)

jcacciotti

joe_miami

It was just a quick example. But your mention of BE actually is a better example: UA wouldn't offer BE if they didn't believe there was demand for it.

joe_miami

I don't know that anyone has suggested that these are rough times for the Global Services crowd.

TomMM

flybit

LOL i think the Air Canada thread is worse.

EWR764

There's an idea. United has an internal pilot message board which requires users to post under their real name, which makes for interesting discussion. I'll attest to the fact that it doesn't deter some some knuckleheads, though.

flybit

yes but if you are flying within North America, options have been narrowed down. Delta/AA/United/AC. AC has turned into a dumpster run with a useless FF program, AA is still trying to get layflat seats 10 years after everyone one else has them.
Delta seems to be the only airline that's doing "most" things right.

joe_miami

I use my real name almost everywhere online, but this would be a bad idea here. These companies have enough info. about us as it is.

blueman2

Great topic. I agree that there is a greater 'feel' of snarkiness these days. Here is my root cause analysis:

1) How UA treats customers impacts how customers treat/feel about UA. This forum is often used as a venting device for feelings about UA, so the worse we feel about UA the worse the snarkiness here. But this surprises me because I think UA is better now than it was 4 or 5 years ago under Smisek. So I am not sure this is a real root cause.

2) Society (particularly in the USA) is more negative and confrontational now than any time since perhaps the 60's during the Vietnam war era. There is just a lot of negative vibe today, and that bleeds over to forums like this. But I do not see the same increased level of snarkiness in other forums. Sure for some, but not overall. So I am not sure this is a root cause.

3) It feels like there is less activity on the UA forum these days, and therefore a small handful of very negative players can increase the 'feel' of snarkiness on the forum. I do not have the data on either point here, but it is my subjective feel that this is true. A few bullies can change the entire feel of a forum, as I have also seen on other sites (travel or non-travel related).

zombietooth

Fantastic idea!

Unfortunately, that would guarantee that no one would give their genuine opinion here on FT because of liability.

Many years ago, I was one of the highest-rated reviewers on Tripadvisor with a high enough profile to be easily identifiable. After I wrote a scathing review of a hotel, I was sued and had to retain counsel. After 75K of legal expenses, I prevailed (but could only recover 25K of my expenses as part of the settlement), but it taught me to never give my real opinion ever again unless I am anonymous. I have never written another Tripadvisor review since.

dilanesp

I think a huge factor is simply that the airlines are making money now, and that makes frequent flyers less important to their business models.

This has HUGE implications that I suspect at least some FF'ers don't think about. One of the reasons the perqs of FF programs were so great in the past is because the airlines were both (1) losing money and (2) were well under capacity. (1) meant that they were desperate to reward good customers and keep them flying and (2) meant that they weren't losing a lot of paying business by giving seats away, including in premium cabins.

Well, now the airlines don't need us so much. Planes are full..Premium cabin space can be sold, even at time of departure. So things elite flyers grew accostomed to are disappearing.

And the old standby- "I will take my business elsewhere"- doesn't work..The airlines don't need your business. Indeed, I would argue they probably don't even really want the business of really entitled FF'ers- they would rather sell that business class seat to a less frequent flyer who doesn't mind paying for it and likes the food service and spacious seat rather than giving it to someone who has extremely high expectations and will be upset at any little thing like ice cream in a paper cup or insufficiently expensive wine.

prestonh

The one I still get in trouble for:

Group of FAs board the hotel bus at 4am on the way to the airport. they are all cheery and say 'good morning' in my face.

I respond "What's so good about mornings?"

they didn't have an answer.

mduell

I doubt the fares justify it. Too many on gov rates, which brings great volume at meager rates.