limey1K

Has anyone ever given one of the GS "Your Hard Work Has Not Gone Unnoticed" thank you cards to a crew member? Curious to know if they're of any value to the employee that receives one or if they'd give you a "Gee thanks" and then bin it!

manstein58

i never have because those stars-have the card in hand, receive great assist, react by writing message, and handing card over- never align. My gut tells me, however, that they would be received with good grace and sincerity as the overwhelming number of GS agents take pride in their work and welcome recognition of that in any form

limey1K

Thanks for the feedback. How about FA's?

Dyce

I have… they seemed appreciative, but I gave it when deplaning so it may well have been binned 30 seconds later!

kirkwoodj

Yes but rarely, so I always had one to give to Annie at SYD. Usually give to FAs these days, but once again--rarely.

greenpau

Had this experience today, paid J ticket, single segment, trying to open a companion saver award. First agent sounds totally confused, then eventually said to me "I'm actually not a Global Services Agent, I work for the Web Support Desk - I need to transfer you". Puts me back into the queue, wait 5 minutes for another agent to answer. This agent then says she needs to talk to a Supervisor. Has me on hold for 11 minutes. Comes back and says that "we've read the entire Wingtips policy, and we are only allowed to convert T>XN class or open IN when PZ is already available". I explain the situation a bit, and she says that "that has never been possible in all the time she has worked here". I thanked her and HUCA. Got through to one of the "GS Classic" agents we all know well here, and he got the entire reservation booked in less than 3 minutes, including seat assignments.

What a mess at the other end of the line these days - literally have no idea who will answer the phone, and if they have any of the requisite training for simple tasks. Same thing on the ground now that they have merged agents into one team - constant confusion about the "benefits". Such a shame.

st530

Just to follow up on this: four separate e-mails to GS, no acknowledgment of receipt, no response.

The web-based e-form to MileagePlus was acknowledged by e-mail immediately upon my submitting the e-form on Oct 27, and assigned a case number. As of of Nov 8, with no response, I replied to the first e-mail, referenced the case number, and asked for a status update. Received another immediate response--but with a new case number ...

No response since. Time to call GS and hope for the best.

IAHMCI

To follow up with my experience, No reply. I was on the phone with a GS agent a few days later on another matter and was transferred to GS MileagePlus to take care of my issue. They easily took care of it.

limey1K

I was talking to one of my local GS agents today and they confirmed (what many of us already knew) that they lost a lot of the old school GS agents and that they have cross trained other existing agents to take very basic GS calls. I said that it makes life very difficult and I usually HUCA until I get an agent that can complete my request. I was warned to be careful with this tactic as a note is sometimes added to your PNR in the remarks section that states "Agent shopping" if they have their suspicions.

Ari

lol, like the pharmacist adding "doctor shopping" to your profile.

Glad to know UA thinks of its GS members so highly!

Oregonflyer

I had a situation a few weeks back where there was J5 at T-72 and two of us (both GS) called to ask that a PP upgrade be pushed on a transcon. First agent explained that "there are others on the upgrade list so you have to wait." HUCA and second (real "calssic" GS) agent pushed both easily but also told us that in the notes the first agent had said we had called and that the upgrades should not be pushed, which the second agent found puzzling enough to mention! So not only are some agents untrained, but they seem to be passing on misinformation in notes - which PAX cannot see. I assume this is not the norm, but it is disturbing.

PanAmWT

Why does UA want to make GS members life nervous? Worry about reaching wrong agents, worry about HUCA but get the same agent, worry about what to say or not to say to avoid agent leaving bad notes. It is almost like we want to sneak in somewhere without proper ID and hope to find a sympathetic gate keeper. Not good for my blood pressure.

uanj

Two thoughts. First, I doubt UA has a policy to make GS lifetime members nervous. Your experience, and everyone' else's, is a reflection of getting a bunch of new agents on board. I've had some good ones and some that I hope don't stay. I am trying to use up my travel credits which is something I never had before. Had one agent say to me we needed to speed up because my call was over her target call time and there were others waiting. The delay? It was taking over two minutes for the system to issue the ticket number.

Second thought (just a guess): HUACA has been recognized internally at UA as taking up too much resources and tied into people taking (full and usually fair) advantage of the program benefits. I don't think UA intended for the unpublished benefits be used as much as they have been and that is why they are cutting back where they can. I can see agents being told to notate requests denied to discourage HUACA.

And I will leave you with a scary thought. Someone I know (a consultant, of course) who does data analysis of loyalty and rewards programs was recently quite critical of benefits like UA's lifetime GS. He believes that most people who achieve this level are retirement or near retirement age and have limited future value as a customer. He thinks airlines should be more focused on a different demographic as they enter into their peak travel spending years. The thought must have ocurred to Kirby by now as well. By the way, this person also does not give great weight to brand promoters so his ideas are debated, but they are numbers driven.

supine

Eh? Lifetime rewards are aimed at maximising LCV, not FCV.

Some actuarial math says that encouraging long-term loyalty, as opposed to transient / short-term loyalty, results in high LCV at a cost that still makes it worthwhile.

That the lifetime benefits kick in when the customer is close to retirement actually means that there is a limited number of years that the benefit has to be provided and their flying is probably also reduced, both aspects that tend to cap the costs of providing lifetime.

Lifetime programs are absolutely aimed at those in the early to mid stages of their peak travel, trying to lock them in to keeping all of their flying with United, maximising their LCV while they are spending with the distant hope they will qualify many years later for the rewards.

PanAmWT

Not to worry - I am not scared. UA has considered weakening lifetime program before, but they decided to keep the incentive for people who want to work for the lifetime GS. I fly on my own money and purchase premium cabin with cash or miles (which we have tons) for long hauls most of the time. If UA decide that they want to downgrade me I will just burn my miles with UA on our Hawaii flights, which should last 5+ years at current standard award F rate during high seasons. The miles will not be used for upgrading as I will lose PN eligibility. I guess I will just use cash in some TOD upgrade situation in domestic flights, but the total cash to UA will be tiny compared to now. That is because for our SFO-TPE trips the two of us flying 2x2xJ on EVA air to Asia is no more expensive than 3xJ + 1xY (one segment upgrade) on UA, and we will have much better service and meals. What I will also give up is the PN priority for my Plus Points for my family. (I will still get the 1K plus points unless UA also removes the lifetime 1K)