cricketer

So I was booking a red-eye SFO-ORD-YUL and back yesterday, and after entering all my credit card details and clicking the purchase button, the little gremlins that run united.com presented me an exclusive offer that would "expire in 5 minutes!"

Apparently I had been selected to receive a discounted buy-up into First for my entire outbound (domestic 763 and E170). First (sorry) time I've seen that happen, and curiosity got the better of me, so I opened up another browser and made a dummy booking to check out the first class fares.

And there's the kicker - the same little gremlins were willing to sell me First straight up on the same flights for a whopping 8 dollars LESS than their exclusive discounted offer!

I tried another dummy booking so I could reproduce the actual numbers for this post, but of course I'm not getting the offer now.

I wonder how many people take advantage of this sort of a buy-up offer at purchase time -- I'm not convinced it hits the same sort of impulse buying triggers that the check-in time offers do.

lucky9876coins

Interesting. Do you remember approximately how much the buy up was?

BenjaminNYC

Hard to comment without knowing the numbers.

hockeyguy

I've seen this once before, but I don't remember the numbers at all. I think you're right, though -- it's just playing on peoples' impules buying tendencies and their thinking that they're getting some special deal. I was curious what the tickets would have booked as if I had taken advantage of the offer (QUP, A, or just some Y fare with an upgrade).

AdamUK

Surely that's got to violate some rule/law about misleading the public?

nnn

How is it misleading? Is there a statement on the buy-up that says "This is a better deal than you could have gotten on your own"?

AdamUK

To offer a higher price for something that is readily available at a cheaper price and wrap it up as a "deal" is ok...?

nnn

From a legal perspective, yes, it can be just fine. In fact, getting yourself the best possible deal is what America is all about, right? (Maybe the UK is different.)

Ari

That, my friend, is called capitalism, not fraud.

AdamUK

From a moral stance, it's wrong in my opinion ... Though i'm all for making a fast-buck

gfunkdave

When I bought ORD-MCI last night (ticketed in Q/QUWLA) it offered me a first class upsell on the outbound (but not return) leg for an extra $140.

Ari

Generally, $65 per 500 miles, from what I have seen.

Maybe $70 now.

nnn

I don't know if this would work, but if you did pay for the upsell then discover the same day that you could have purchased an F ticket on your own for cheaper, then maybe you can do the 24-hour cancellation thing and get your money back.

AdamUK

I would have thought yes.... unless the 24-hour cancellation thing doesn't include "Deals"

cricketer

It was around $13xx extra for the SFO-ORD-YUL buy-up to First.