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Does anybody else feel like its a little harsh in here...?

Does anybody else feel like its a little harsh in here...?

Old Apr 12, 2018, 11:43 pm
  #61  
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Programs: UA*Lifetime GS, Hyatt* Lifetime Globalist
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I have been on this forum for over 15 years, and I share OP's sentiment that the messages here have been increasingly less courteous.
There has also been a lot of stereotypes of comments about certain group of posters such as "GS being arrogant", "Mileage runners are destroying the benefits", or "infrequent travelers are gate lice"

There is no stupid question, but new comers with less knowledge of frequent flyer programs or the Flyertalk website do sometimes get unfairly bashed because of the simple nature of the questions being asked.
We are here to express a view and agree to disagree, but also need to respect the opposing views. I was recently told by one poster to stop expressing Polaris Retrofit schedule is too slow. It was the first time in 15 years that someone told me to stop expressing a view. There is another post I saw when a UA MM flyer asking a question about certain *G benefits, and he got tortured by one poster for being a MM flyer not knowing enough about *G benefits.

I have also seen newcomers starting the question by apologizing for asking the questions in anticipation of being flamed later. There are many more instances that I find it hard to comprehend the behaviors and mindset of certain posers who seem to be having the "soup Nazi" type of mentality.

I learn new things every time I come to this forum despite of being a 4 MMer and GS for over a decade. I feel grateful for some of the suggestions and tips offered by many here in this forum and I also try to provide similar feedbacks to those who have questions. Ten years ago, I started a thread to help promoting awareness to a United sponsored activity to the wider frequent flyer community. As result of that thread, more than 50 people became Flyertalk members (ua1flyer being one of them), and I was honored to be interviewed by InsideFlyer magazine for that effort. I have organized the Milestone, Ranking and other threads each year to promote the community spirit in this forum. However, in recent years, I have been posting less because the changes in tone. As other has indicated, this is not limited to UA forum or Flyertalk, it is a change to the entire social media.

I have a hectic schedule and a lot of commitments at work and home, and FT has been an escape for me to get away from reality to relax and to focus on something I enjoy exploring and sharing. Despite it has been harsh as OP pointed out, It is still a good place to come and learn and I also learn I need to adjust my mindset adopt the change in tone, otherwise I will be losing a place I can come to for escape.

Last edited by UA_Flyer; Apr 13, 2018 at 2:19 am
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Old Apr 13, 2018, 1:32 am
  #62  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Programs: UA GS>1K>Nothing; DL PM 2MM; AS 75K>Nothing>MVP
Posts: 9,334
Originally Posted by joe_miami
Which is funny, because the airlines are giving customers exactly what they've shown to want: A race to the bottom.
That's not what I want and I suspect it's not what a lot of FTers want. I also suspect the airlines fail or are unable to analyze the impact on long term customer behavior when they offer such poor a poor product/service.

Originally Posted by spin88
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.
+1000. I'd like reasonable predictable fares for good seats that are easy to book. The airlines have figured out how to maximize the revenue on any given flight, but I think longer term they're convincing a lot of us that travel (business or personnel) is just not worth the hassle.

Originally Posted by 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.
+1 I bailed from DL a while back, but recently with the uncertainty of upgrades, the decline in service, the lack/cost of F award availability, and noncompetitive F fares on UA, I end up just booking F on DL for most of my domestic travel. The decline in UA's competitiveness on international routes has been even more pronounced.

Anyway bottom line, I think these developments sometimes tempt us to view posts defending UA as moronic or at least illogical.
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Old Apr 13, 2018, 9:12 am
  #63  
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: EWR
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I really haven't noticed a particularly big difference in the tones of the postings, but admittedly I spend less time here since my status with CO coincidentally expired at the same time as CO itself expired.

In any case, my biggest gripe with the UA board (as opposed to the CO board) is the dominance of wiki threads. Just looking at the first page of the UA MP board, more than half of the "Normal" threads are wiki threads started on average 2 and half years ago. Clicking into the discussion of a wiki thread is like flying blind; I have no idea what the latest posts are about, how many there are, or if they interest me. Consequently, I tend to avoid most of them.

I firmly believe that the UA board would be more interesting to visit if the wiki threads occupied their own sub-board, and the "Normal " threads were actually just that.
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