Karter

Why are you holding on to so many miles? Spend!

ChicagoUnited

Like some others, I'm frustrated by the new portal -- it's got too many big headlines, and given the number of times I log into it, I don't need big thermometers at the top of the page (damn they take a lot of space) showing me how many miles I have and how my progress to next level is going. I can, in fact, read numbers, and the thermometer approach doesn't add to my understanding or interpretation.

It's a burdensome site, not intuitive and forces us to look harder for some information than in the past. Nothing about the new site is an improvement in my view, except some access to information about EQM & EQS.

Now it's spread to email.

This morning I got the email that says "you have 363,000 miles. That's enough for a roundtrip flight."

Did someone who thought this was a good idea think that I didn't know that? Or that anyone with more than, say, 50,000 miles, doesn't know that?

This kind of email ought to share more information and in a way that's consumable. Like the site, the email is too busy and hard to read.

unavaca

How is the site "dreadful" again? It shows you more information than before and it is better laid out than the old site. The graphs allow those of us who better process information visually to understand where they are and how much there is to go. It's not like they removed the text that indicated exactly how many miles you have and how many more you need to earn.

Is it "dreadful" because it's "different," or is there something fundamentally wrong with the site?

notquiteaff

I think we already have a long thread about it.

Thunderroad

I wholly agree with the criticism of the new website--for me, its biggest failure is that it didn't do what many of us wanted, which is to provide a way of tracking each EQM accrual. But I think it's important to remember that, like many airline marketing and informational tools, these new emails are not intended for most FT members. The real audience is folks who don't track their miles and points. And I suspect that the real point with these emails is not to get folks to spend their miles but to remind them that they get something of value from spending $$$ to fly UA.

So yeah, it looks silly for UA to send someone an email saying that their X million miles are enough for a RT ticket, but weeding out those who already know a lot about UA MP from those who don't have a clue (including some folks who have a ton of miles) might not be possible and probably isn't worth the effort for UA.

mahasamatman

I disagree. It has the same information, but takes more clicks to get to much of it. The gratuitous graphics take up far too much screen real estate.

the_happiness_store

Overall I agree with you. The first page has useful information. Like others it is taking me a while to navigate to the places I want to go but once learned I'm sure I will like this site much more than its predecessor.

notquiteaff

IF member.status < 1P THEN send_email

But yeah, I agree with the gist of your post; UA doesn't target messages towards the level of sophistication of the traveler and 99% are not savvy FTers.

mahasamatman

It would be nice if the email subscription options had a bit finer granularity.

the_happiness_store

That's hard.

dcshungu

I share fully share this sentiment, as "dreadful" is not how I would characterize the redone website. I, in fact, like it 100% better than the now defunct monstrosity. To return to the topic of the this thread, if they can fix the "Miles Snapshot" thingy, I would have nothing to complain about...

mahasamatman

For UA's IT, adding 1+1 is hard.

AZ_MISMAN

they forgot to add "in coach between ORD and MKE"

gobluetwo

Yeah, my RT only costs 242k miles. But they're definitely going after the lowest common denominator here. You have to remember that the vast majority of MP members are not elites, and that even many of the Premiers are not exactly flush with miles or earning potential.

Also, not everyone is as obsessive-compulsive as us in checking practically every day the details of a flight several weeks out in the off chance that 6A on that airbus will magically become available, AND independently tracking our RDM/EQM/EQS in a separate spreadsheet, AND updating our flight memories, AND checking our award consolidator sites (eg, award wallet), AND updating TripIt, etc etc etc.

HNLescapee

I have a grand plan that someday when I get married I'll have my bachelor party in Tokyo over a long weekend and fly us all there in C or F. I want to see how many people I can take with me.

Seriously.