Expert Mode: better upgrade visibility and opt-in to see fare bucket data {Archive}
 

Hi Everyone,

I want to give you an update on the changes to our united.com Expert Mode feature. By now, most of you know why we made the change we did: Displaying this level of information to all customers was causing significant confusion and questions.

We remain committed to providing information that makes your travel planning experience better, but there is a difference between a feature like Expert Mode -- which is understood by a select set of customers, and new features we’re developing like upgrade status visibility -- which is more easily understood by all customers. I’m happy to say that, as a direct result of your feedback, we have worked hard to accelerate a couple solutions that accomplish this goal.

Within the next two weeks we will:
Like you, we wish we could have made these changes concurrently. That said, we appreciate your patience over the next couple of weeks while we roll these out. Thank you as always for your feedback.

Shannon Kelly
Director, Customer Insights
United Airlines

That's great that Expert Mode will be re-enabled (opt-in or otherwise). Any time frame when you anticipate that will be available?

WOW. You guys listened to customer feedback and responded appropriately. This is a great step forward, both in terms of functionality and in gaining trust back from those of us who felt burned by the removal.

Thank you for this update.

Regarding the re-launch of expert mode, will the visibility of fare-class level information be limited to revenue buckets, or will that also include award and upgrade buckets? If just the former, that won't resolve the issue of currently not being able to check upgrade/award availability prior to making a reservation. If the latter, that would be great!

Fantastic news!!

Now, wouldn't it have just been easier to plan things out and announce this concurrently with the change a week ago? ;)

Regardless, thanks for pushing this through and letting us know!

Great news that visibility will be back for upgrade status and fare class. Now if only the upgrade process could be fixed, I still have (slim) hope that it'll happen one day.

Thanks for addressing this Shannon and also making a separate thread as it would likely be lost in the other one;)

This is one of the best Friday news for a long time!

Thank you for listening to your customers. ^^

I read it as including award / upgrades, but if I am wrong, then UA truly missed the boat here. I'm hopeful.

I'll wait and see.

Dave

Shannon, I'm not sure if you did this or other execs saw the thread, but thanks to everyone at UA that stepped back, listened to your customers and made a sound decision. ^

ETA: Will upgrade and award availability be made available to KVS and EF?

Kudos to UA for listening to their customer base.

Thanks Shannon!

Thanks. This is good news.

+1, this is very encouraging.

EXCELLENT. UA actually listening to customer feedback and react in a customer-friendly manner.

Now, if only we could bring back availability on EF (perhaps EF could work out a licensing agreement with UA to utilize the data?)