searchforfulfillment

Not sure if there is another appropriate thread for this; has UA MP administration determined that awarding status levels based upon spend and not actual miles in seats generates more revenue? Perhaps I'm a bit old fashioned, I thought that long term, customers would be better served by a system that is not watered down. Has the number of premium seats available kept pace with the number of GS and 1K members? Why would a frequent flyer choose an airline with lower percentage upgrades than another? There are a number of factors at work, not to mention the impact of a bet on a majority Boeing livery versus competitors. Travelers still value getting from A to B above mileage status. Seems that loyalty should be rewarded with better seating.

jsloan

Clearly they have.

Irrelevant. UA is interested in what serves UA best. What serves customers best is not important.

Probably not.

You have answered your own question.

UA provides any available E+ seat at no charge to Premier members.

They are not going to forgo a bunch of revenue selling F seats just to give them away at no charge due to "loyalty."

WineCountryUA

As have AA and DL, but even more so

Note NET revenue is both air travel revenue and fees from credit card usage. There have been times the Net Revenue of credit cards exceed the flight Net Revenue. That is hard for the airlines to ignore. But not great for those looking to be rewarded for their "loyalty."

UA_Flyer

I am not even sure the right term to describe the airlines loyalty program anymore.

We all know it is not about "frequent flying", because if one does not meet the $ threshold, there is no (desired) status for you.
It is not frequent purchasing" neither, because one expensive international round-trip in Polaris (ie. US-China), can earn you 1K, and 2 trips may earn you GS.
The only "frequent" requirement is the 4-segment minimum requirement on UA/UX metals to qualify for Mileage Plus status.

"Mileage Run" is dead other than earning lifetime BIS. If one wants to earn more miles for redemption, just buy more expensive tickets.
"Status Run": combination of meeting minimum PQF and PQD for desired status or just buy one expensive ticket (if 4-segment minimum is met) to meet the PQD threshold and forget about PQF.

Upgrade is a marketing bait, much like seeing a car dealer ads selling a particular car for certain low price, and when you show up at the dealership, there is only one car at that price and it is often less desirable or already gone.

artvandalay

UA agrees, so all you have to do is fly one million miles with them and in return, they'll give you "better seating" for life.

SCChris

So called "loyalty" programs have never been about rewarding loyalty, they have been about creating brand loyalty by rewarding volume by offering perks/awards. In the past you could be the most loyal UA customer; however, if you didn't fly a lot, then you didn't get the better seating/award miles/perks.

All the various airlines have done is they've redefined the measure of volume for the type of customer they want to offer perks to in order to create that brand loyalty. Instead of miles/segments flown it has transitioned to dollars spent on tickets and now dollars spent on co-branded credit cards.

Aussienarelle

Once folks understand that the only aspect of the frequent flyer program at United is the lifetime status the happier Mileage Plus members will be. Lifetime Gold is a nice place to be.

For United the focus is maximizing revenue for shareholders as that is how management is rewarded. [Slightly off topic but the recently announced changed at Boeing to including Quality in the management metric is telling on where management will now direct focus.]

Frequent flyer programs were originally introduced to encourage flying loyalty. This is no longer required to generate revenue for the airlines. My 1K perks keep me primarily with United. My friends who fly once or twice a year choose least cost.

lincolnjkc

And FQTVs emerged at the twilight of the regulated era (which almost corresponds with the dawn of my existence on this planet) -- AA, according to at least one source, wanted to track the journeys of individuals for various purposes and found that phone numbers and addresses in PNRs weren't unique enough -- travel agents would put their own phone numbers in the PNR, addresses may be shared by dozens of travelers in the case of office addresses) so needed to assign a unique identifier to travelers. The rebate encouraged them to use it and had little actual cost, particularly relative to the value of the data mine, in an era of 60-70% load factors.

Now that airlines are running consistently high load factors with far more intelligent tools to help both network and capacity planning, the value of the individual traveler has shifted more to be ancillary revenue attachment through e.g. credit cards and club memberships. Miles redeemed now have a real cost as the chances of displacing a revenue passenger are significantly higher (except for really close in bookings which can sometimes be had at fire sale prices)

And indeed 1K perks and the individuals I know at UA (and the fact that I can generally trust UA to look out for me in irops) keep me flying UA and doing stupid things like DFW-IAD-CLE when, of course AA has DFW-CLE -- but AA has also left me out to dry during IRROPS, I'd have to pay for both my bag and a decent seat -- when UA gave me the seat and bag for free, let me use the club, and put me in F because I happened to be on an M fare. (Then met me with a Jaguar in IAD and dropped me at the door to my second aircraft, but I digress)

Upgrades and redemptions are a TINY part of the equation for me and UA...in fact neither is something I regularly consider.

My wife, on the other hand flys UA with me, AA for most leisure (because she has a strong preference for DCA and AA does DCA-CLE and for cheaper than UA will sell DCA-xxx-CLE) or most business travel is on Delta because they hold the GSA city pair contracts for (most of) her business destinations. She doesn't really fly enough for it to matter so goes based on schedule. I on the other hand am riding Metro to IAD to board flight #39 of this year.

lhrsfo

The key thing to remember is that you have a choice of airlines. I switched from UA to BA because a combination of the new MP program sinking to below BA’s, and generally better pricing on BA - the latter being variable and somewhat marginal. I generally prefer UA but, after the changes, its proposition is no longer compelling.

eightblack

I'm convinced the airlines are the best data mining companies on the planet. You could argue that they arent airlines at all, but rather sophisticated marketing businesses who make a shed load of money selling credit cards, airline miles and on the odd occasion, moving people from point A to point B.

halls120

The only "upgrade" that UA cares about these days is the paid upgrade they get from customers who put $$ on the table so they can sit up front. Free UGs are a relic of the past.

​​​​​​For the time being, that's the only real benefit that most long term customers get in return for their loyalty.

Repooc17

Airlines care about their bottom line, but not so much its customers. This is the primary reason I will never overspend for status, including upgrades.

This is also the reason I don't stick with one airline. The house always win, unless you can exploit the system.

Will say this again, there is no such thing as loyalty, except for maybe your (voluntary) loyalty to airline with no reciprocity.

Lastly, Alaska still has a distance based program, so top tier status can be earned on the cheap.

WineCountryUA

While reduced, they still occur every day on nearly every flight. But it is not what you could count on in the past.

EricH

Basing MP points on spend rather than distance kills off much of the gaming the system that used to go on. In this way, it can reduce UA;s liabilities.

jbarbie

I had been 1K since 2006, but despite flying to Asia 3 times and to Europe twice, plus numerous domestic tickets -- easily more than 100,000 miles -- I just couldn't meet the spend. I'm a college professor, and not a high-roller. I'm a million-miler, and about 90,000 miles away from 2-million. At first I felt really bad about this -- it had been 17 years for heaven's sake, but now I feel liberated. No longer will I bend over backwards to fly on United, taking less desirable itineraries and buying more expensive tickets. I'm Star Alliance Gold for life, so I can always use the lounges and get preferred boarding. Who cares? United has lost me as a super-loyal customer. I know that they don't care.