lapeter

I would like to specifically address the mainland to Hawaii upgrade policy and cost starting Jan. 2010. Mainland to Hawaii is $500 each way to upgrade plus 15,000 miles on lowest fares. Somebody explain to me how domestic First is worth $1000 each way or when my wife and I fly that makes it $2000 plus 60,000 miles. RIP OFF United!!! Also by year end I will be 1K, but I am not sure how this will help. I could see paying $100 to $200 for the upgrade plus miles, but $1,000- please. I think there are a lot of us that fly this route and maybe we need to stand up and be counted. I believe that most people will NOT pay $1000 to upgrade to Hawaii. The First cabin will be all non-revs. The main reason for me to be loyal to United is to be 1k or 1p. Once the new policy goes into effect, there will be plenty of upgrades available regardless of your status level or not even being a Premiere. This will cause me to take fewer trips with United.

ironmanjt

Simple: they think they can get it. You want "something for nothing" (ok, maybe miles aren't nothing, but they're sure not profit for UA) so explain why they should be concerned?

If "domestic F" were so bad, why would you be so concerned about sitting in it?

WineCountryUA

If they don't fill (or don't think they will) the seats the policy will change, if they do fill the seats the policy will not change.

jraindc

If you are 1K, why not use a CR-1? No upgrade cost.

tjtenor4

My hypothesis continues to be that the $500 copay exists solely to match CO's copay scheme. The difference is, CO uses planes equipped with their international BusinessFirst product to service Hawaii, whereas UA (primarily) uses the boring old domestic F fleet.

Clearly, the $500 copay is absurd, given the F product UA uses to service Hawaii. Unfortunately, UA management seems to be oblivious to this fact.

Ripper3785

Looking forward to never worrying about requested upgrades clearing next year.

UA is crazy to think they can get that kind of $ for Hawaii upgrades.

Mike Jacoubowsky

I guess it depends where you're flying from. If ORD, ORD-HNL is a very long flight, and $500 plus 15,000 miles might not be so bad. Let's say you're talking round trip. Those 30,000 miles are basically a domestic saver award, so let's say they have a value of $400. So you're into F for roughly $1400 plus the initial cost of your (cheap fare class) coach seat, which might be $600. $2000 to fly in F ORD-HNL. That's about $600 less than buying the seat outright. But no class-of-service bonus, and somebody else is likely to be higher on the food chain, when it's time to order meals, than you.

It's certainly no great deal; you'd probably be better off getting a saver award for F. It's just a different way to "pay" for F.

It will be interesting to see how it all works out. In the new economy, United may not feel that F is a profit center anymore, and might be looking to remove capacity, or at the very least figure out alternatives to giving it away too cheaply when it's an upgrade.

Now, if you really want to make the new upgrade costs for XXX-HNL look silly, consider that $700 or so gets you a Y-C bump at the gate on an SFO-SYD flight. Twice as much time in the air, and potentially in a much-nicer seat as well. And no miles sucked from your account either.

My guess is that UA is going to have a tough time selling those upgrades, which means more folk will get op-ups and perhaps wider availability of saver F awards... neither of which will help UAs bottom line.

joeljack

Yes I 100% agree. I've been to Hawaii I think 7 or 8 times now and never flown in coach. Always used miles to upgrade or last year I purchase a first A fare and it wasn't that bad ($1650 total from OMA) Why would I buy a cheap ticket, pay $1000 roundtrip to upgrade plus spent 30k miles???? Crazy!!!

I'll tell you what, I can assure you I won't be going to Hawaii again on a coach fare...in fact I'll probably just choose to fly somewhere else for vacation. The only way I'm going to pay that much for an upgrade is if they upgrade the planes to the lie flat seats with AVOD...otherwise, not in a million years.

UA is going to regret this move 100%.

dshafiee

Yes, but elites on CO are exempt.

tjtenor4

Only from the $50 mainland domestic copay.

SF1K

Yes, the Hawaii thing will be very interesting. I'm looking at two spring flights and the least expensive fares are coming in at $1100, which is V - hypothetically that would be $800 more to upgrade if I used miles after the program starts. That's $1900. You can buy A for $375 more roundtrip. Crazy.

prestonh

Sure it's a rip off, but the non co-pay with miles was a steal. Based on what I can tell, they are just saying, if you are using miles for NF to HI, you may as well buy an A fare and get the resulting privileges/bonuses.

As for their motivation, I just think that its been too easy to use miles for UG overall, and this is clearly a move to reverse that. This makes the confirmable UG instruments a bit more valuable...particularly the CR1's.

Plus, how else do you open up space for the NRSA's?

UnitedEF

Co-pays should be eliminated or significantly reduced for 1k's.

COSPILOT

Add me to the list that is not happy about this. I can only hope that E-500's will clear, which will be cheaper than the copay and not require the use of miles.

pk23

hi all! i live in hawaii also and have been flying out of here for about 2 years now (1K with united, plat with AA).

the biggest problem i have with this is the service. HNL-ORD is like an international flight with terrible seats and service. if we really wanna whine and cry like babies, its like flying on the OLD international planes. i believe we do have the right to whine about it, because standards are standards and the HNL flights are sub-standard.

a fairly rational argument exists for the LAX/SNA/SFO to HNL flyers, since it borders on the 'typical' CONUS flight.

unless they changed the 500 mile upgrade policy, i suggest do the math and use those or a regional upgrade.

i know flights are different, but it just seems the math doesnt work out. paying for a flight, then paying 500+miles? wouldn't a y/b (im sure most ppl on this forum would get that automatic upgrade) cost the same or less?

i figure the day i move from here, UA will use their international planes for HNL routes seriously, the HNL-ORD and HNL-DEN flights are the suck!