True enough. I travel to Europe 5-7 times a year and Asia 2-3 times. Learning i can fly a lot better and cheaper on other carriers to Europe (6k v. 8-9k on mediocre Polaris) and now looking at Asia options. I’m OK with those options

I agree that GS has been devalued. For me, however, I still value being able to get Saver awards out of T class and upgrade them with PPs when traveling on vacation. The one-segment companion upgrade is super frustrating, but remains better than nothing. And while I don’t fly domestic very often, when I do I usually get upgraded.

SQ, BR and others offer service that is head-and-shoulders above UA. Ferragamo amenity kits, top-shelf liquors, edible multi-course meals are all things I won’t get on UA. I had two SQ flights last week, actually, and you can’t help but notice a difference from UA. Like I said, if I didn’t get the perks above I would move 100% of my travel to other airlines. So GS, for what it is worth, is the only thing allowing UA to get my business.

Others have said GS costs UA a lot to operate. I am not so sure. There really isn’t such a thing as GS-dedicated staff anymore. These agents wear many hats, which keeps productivity high. I suppose the few Lobbies and LHR lounge add operational cost, but these items are few and far between. Yes, allowing us to spend fewer miles or use upgrades on awards has the potential to cost them foregone revenue, but I also suspect inventory management protects them from real losses. Net, if there are others like me who stay only because GS - and I am sure there are - then the cost to operate the system is likely a lot less than the money they would otherwise lose.

Another way to look at it is how much incremental revenue are they losing? For me, in the past 12 months I've flown other airlines for the first time in over a decade. AND HAVE NO REGRETS. I get treated just as well in the front of Delta and American as I do on United... and on international airlines I have/had a better experience. Thus the incremental revenue they've lost this year from just me is $42K and counting. Yes, I still fly United when it makes sense, but GS devaluation and crappy food service onboard, is costing them some of my business. But hey, they've got the BE flyers to make up for it...

Why wouldn't American and Delta treat you just as well?

I was at the reception UA held in San Francisco last night. I chatted with execs from sales as well as the three folks who run SFO, LAX, and Denver. They're quite happy with their current situation. Their forward loads look healthy and they're surprised at the resilience of the leisure traveler -- especially their willingness to pay for premium cabins. They specifically called out their Hawaii and LH Europe flights from the west coast as strong performers.

I don't think they're starved for high maintenance, $75K-100K/yr travelers. Yes, those folks sit atop the pyramid, but UA is starting to appreciate the breadth of the high-spending leisure segment of the pyramid.

The SFO-HNL flights for the last several months have been full most of the time, and typically the domestic F fares have increased to $1.8K to $2.3K one way for flight hours < SFO-NYC, and often sold out a few days before departure. Mileage tickets for the <5 hour reclining F seats require almost the same as 12-13 hour Polaris flights SFO-TPE. Clearly a lot of high-spending tourists on board. Only once I was not No.1 on the UG waitlist, so these high fare tickets were mostly purchased by non-GS members.

My own anecdotal story:

My buddy and I flew to Scotland back in May. Ended up getting stuck an extra day in EDI due to mechanical. We were both at the Waldorf and it was going to run about $600 a night. I called the GS line and got someone who said, "Just book the rooms, we'll reimburse", but I asked for a supervisor. Got someone from Chicago, explained the room rates and he said the same thing.

When I got back home it took me a couple of weeks and one person from MP saying they only do $300 but I asked them to pull the call log as I had the name and time. I ended up with, once my friend sent an endorsement to United for his ETC's, two $1,200 ones for the flight delay and another $1,200 for the two rooms.

While they might have questioned it they did stand good to what I was told 100% so I did what any HVF does, I booked another TATL for Mrs. Augustus to go to London since she couldn't do Scotland.

Old-school GS service for the win!
 

Well I’m happy to say at least today old-school Global Services service is alive and well! I was flying from Paris to Detroit via Dulles, and the Paris-Dulles flight was massively delayed and I would have missed my connection. No seats for sale to Newark or Chicago, but flight status showed they were not booked full. An amazing GS agent (she’s already got gold stars on the agent list!) called to try to get be booked and when unsuccessful told me she would email GS in Paris to clear me into one of the flights. I said I just need enough notice to get to the airport in time, so please have someone call me if it clears. Amazingly, I got my wake-up call at 6am to tell me to head to the airport as I was going home through Newark and they would be waiting at check-in with my boarding passes. Surely enough that is exactly what happened and I’m on my way home smoothly, comfortably and on-time. Above and beyond like old times. Wow!! Why I will continue to steer spend to United.

What is going on? Whenever I book an M, B, or Y domestic fare and PN>0, the web site offers me an instant upgrade, but the link does not work (takes me back to the united.com home page). In the past, I have just called GS and they took care of it. Called today TWICE and got agents who claimed they could not do anythying until 120 hours prior to the flight, which is totally wrong. Went to the app and got the upgrade, no problems. I guess I need to do everything through the app from now on, but something is not right with the GS agents.

Unfortunately -- there are no more "GS" agents -- just some agents that have been trained to be "faux" GS agents to the over-entitled premium fliers UA used to care about....

exactly my point…

This might be a case of whistling past the graveyard. Demand in all of our markets is cratering. Sequence it: demand for consumer products goes first, then leisure spending, then?

Ultimately I think 2023 is going to be a bit of a reset - due to the pandemic, anecdotally it seems MP is top heavy at 1K and GS compared to a typical year given status extensions. This seems to be resulting in a GS experience similar to 1K in years past, and 1K experience similar to platinum or even gold, where upgrades are very difficult to come by.

The increased chance of an upgrade as a GS is nice but it's really the companion upgrade and no questions asked customer service (in my experience) compared to 1K that is the difference for me. I know GS has been devalued compared to past years (honestly what hotel/airline program hasn't?) but it's still worth it enough to me that I will push to fly United metal to EU and Asia wherever possible in an effort to keep GS.

Plus, I'll admit that I'm a sucker for the more frequent recognition as a GS pre- and in-flight, especially when traveling with 1K colleagues.

-311

I first encountered this bug over two years ago and reported it at the time. The solution, as you discovered, is to do it on your phone. For me that has worked every time.

Amazing service recovery and further service in PHL. I arrived and attempted to check a bag. The kiosk was acting wonky so I asked for assistance. The young woman behind the counter was chitchatting and not paying attention. When I asked for help she told me to use the kiosk and did not even know what GS status was (asked her colleague about the bag). When I went to the gate I was met by a premium agent (used to be a longtime IAD GS agent). She apologized for the check in agent and escorted us on the plane. The flight went mechanical and she already had us protected on the next flight and escorted us to the gate. Great service! I wish it was always like this. We were booked in F (on Z fares) and F was full on the new flight. Do I get a credit for fare difference? I've never asked for this before so wondering how it works.