Pretty Disappointed with this announcement.....
 

I was all settled in for a mileage run to top off the EQM and hit 1K again, as I didn't get to explore as much of the world through my employment this year as in prior years. I've always saved the CR1's to treat my wife to F going to Hawaii (I know the product is minimalistic compared to Intl. F [ on very rare occasions these days ], but)....

Anyway, while I like the UDU's, the reduction in CR1's is making me think long hard about the MR to top off. I only spend $15K to 20K per year with UA, so its not a huge deal to them if I switch but it seems short sighted of US to target their top flyers with this change and of course the poor folks who hit 1K on segments.

I'm sure questioning my loyalty to UA with this turn of events.

First step is on my back
 

I fly just about 150 plus or minus a few. This is a reduction in benefits for a 1K flyer up to 150K, and only EQUAL if you fly 1.5K, and only better if you hit 1.75K. Sorry-- this is a reduction in benefits for 90% of 1K's.:mad:

Really? In my 10+ years on FT we have reversed a huge number bad decisions by MP, none of which had to do with nuts or towels. If we had listened to the likes of you back then we would have caved on every lousy, bad change and now be left holding nothing. But do tell us when we get to things that matter.:rolleyes:

This hasn't been touched on explicitly that much in the however many hundred posts in this thread, but a question worth thinking about. My guess is that there wasn't anything inherently wrong with 1Ks getting 8 CR-1s. The bigger deal was that if CO gave out 8 CR-1s, their revenue model would break. Too many plats that would normally buy YBM fares to get the confirmed upgrade would now just buy the cheapest fare and upgrade. Four RTs per plat where you lost several hundred dollars of revenue would be a problem. But they couldn't take CR-1s away completely, so this is how they made the compromise.

Many companies have focus groups like this (the old United did, too). They're by invitation, and the members are usually covered by an NDA, so they can't really talk about what goes on behind closed doors. Just let it go. You're not going to get anywhere trying to force the issue.

Eh, calm down, I wasn't trying to tell the forum how to drive UA where we want them to go.

I just meant that if thousands of 1K's flood 1Kvoice threatening to go to AA because they take away hot towels, they're not going to listen to the bigger complaints.

I have no intention of silently caving on any change they make to MP.

Well, I'm a bit happier, at least the CR-1 change doesn't happen until 2012. And now we can earn 8 CR-1s in the standard way + 2 more at 75k +2 more at 100k + 2 more at 125k next year!

I don't think this is a matter of "blowing ammo." It stands to reason that getting rid of E+ will cause lots of frequent fliers to leave, pure and simple. Whether or not the economics of that work for the airline is up to them to figure out; I would assume that's the single biggest operational decision they have to make vis-a-vis retention of elites and the unified carrier, and I find it hard to believe that they'd be dumb enough to announce the end of E+ (or that they're phasing it out on domestic, or whatever) and then go back a few days later after the inevitable flyertalk freak-out.

Having said that, the ruckus over the CR-1 thing seems a little silly to me. The airline giveth, and the airline taketh away. The airline also controls your ability to spend; they can issue twice as many, and reduce the supply of available confirmable upgrades by half, and we'll only have anecdotal evidence (gathered in the midst of a merger) to try and figure out what's going on. It may very well be that somebody in an office somewhere convinced the powers that be that it would be much easier for them to reduce the supply of available confirmable seats (death by a thousand cuts in the dark, to combine two terrible analogies) than it is to reduce the supply of instruments (chopping off your head in the bright light of day.)

Crazy as it may sound, it seems to me that FTers on this board are (at least collectively) a pretty rational bunch. Sure, we complain all kinds of little things -- where would we be without rants? :p -- but we don't go ballistic about minor things that impact few people. You show me a thread with hundreds of compaint posts and tens of thousands of views, and I'd say you're looking at something that by definition "matters." A quick review of the top threads of all time by posts shows the following "complaint" topics (in descending order of # of posts):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-blocking.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...hanges-ua.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...nited-com.html

This thread

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ts-merged.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-pay-deal.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...cies-fees.html

I'd say these are pretty significant topics.

Hmmm. Good point. I would add, though, that the priority of many of these CR-1s is going to drop on Feb. 1 when many of these 1K lites lose their status.

Flyertalk = small but mighty voice (not the only voice but still a might voice ;))

see my comment above

Bolding mine: See my comment above (redux)

Great post by the OP.

Seriously, a simple search would yield this thread, coincidentally started by mahasamatman.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...community.html

It's private.
It's by invitation only.
You are required to sign a NDA.
It's run by United, not FT.
I know several FTers in the UA forum who are members - you probably don't because they don't discuss it.

How much simpler can this be?

You weren't invited.

Gees, people. Get over it.

Any more posts about this topic in this thread will be summarily deleted. We are not going to babysit this thread.

You have been warned.

SPOT ON+1
 

We fought a fast fight and can claim victory at least temporarily. I agree we need to choose our battles carefully. Keep delivering the message about economy plus or it will not appear on CO aircraft which are now substitutable on all routes without prior notice. I cannot wait to hear about the first time an elite gets pressed into a 31" economy seat after selecting an E+ seat....

That's my thinking as well. Decisions about the future of int'l F and E+ are something that I wouldn't expect to be reversible by a flood of posts here or messages sent to 1KVoice. If they take E+ away, they know how this will go over here. In the case of CR1s they may have underestimated how much many folks here are attached to their continued existence, and compromising on it as they did is ultimately easy to implement and not exactly costly (they control availability of upgradable seats, as you pointed out).

I think you nailed it with this statement; I imagine that UA is planning moving to the CO "instant" upgrade scheme and CR1s negate that model.

I'm betting the next "enhancement" for 2012 for the combined program will be ZERO CR1s and "instant" upgrades (maybe instant upgrade 2H2011, and bye-bye CR1s in 2012, and amount of complaining will bring them back).

My guess is a variation on that. They'll reduce the CR-1's (maybe 2 for every 50k miles starting at 100k) but they'll more than likely introduce reduced EQM for lower fares (S, T, K, L) making the target harder to reach as well. Then it's a natural progression towards instant upgrades for YBM since those are also the same people racking up full EQM.