Firewind

@:-)
No. No. No. This is a very good thing. You just paid, like a sacrificial lamb, or almost with a sacrifice fly, on behalf of all of us. And it's leveraged even further because it's you, because of your status in FlyerTalk and your leadership. People will pay attention. Thank you.

You opened a window. The agent gave you/us a window into the actual reason for the elimination of the 500-mile minimum -- an answer we won't get from the semi-non-official participants or surrogates here. It's to weed out what (not only) we do. (I would add again, that this can't give the UXs a warm fuzzy feeling, considering the implications beyond us miscreants.)

Net-net: What you endured was more than worth it in the scheme of things. Sorry you had to, but a huge THANK YOU! (An ex-girlfriend would have called this a "moment of grace".)
^^^


[Oops, one more thing: Not to distract from my point, but I assume your "experiment" was over by this time? I haven't been following it closely. I guess the premise was that he recognized you and you were inside the RCC.]

lucky9876coins

Well it's hard to say for sure, but UA's rules are very mileage run friendly. They allow four transfers each way within the US on most transcon itineraries, while other airlines only allow one or two. So among airlines I'd say they're the most mileage run friendly.
Actually had to put the experiment on hold because EQM's must be requested before the flight in order to earn DEQM, but it'll happen as soon as the promo is over.

exerda

No; a MR is no different from any other booked itinerary under UA's rules. Would you be willing to accept the "danger" of an agent refusing to help if you had a business meeting you had to get to, but which irrops had messed up--when there was a solution readily apparent if only the agent would take it?

In both cases, IMHO, the RCC agent tried to use his or her opinions on MRs (and sour attitude in general) to "punish" a customer. UA's rules in both cases were on the customer's side. It doesn't matter what the purpose of the trip was. In my case, the rules allow a standby to a nonstop from a connecting flight (and to complicate things, a phone agent had already protected me onto the nonstop, but the RCC agent claimed that was impossible and refused to even check the PNR--that's a different issue I've posted on previously, though).


UA does not, unlike DL, actively prohibit MRs. They don't even discourage them; UA's fare rules and the MP program rules are such that MRs are treated like any other flights.

halothane

1) If you can book it you can fly it
2) My money is just as green as anybody elses


Halothane

Firewind

Sorry, but I think it's staying on topic. This is a new one to me. How does DL do it? Thanks.

lucky9876coins

They typically only allow one connection each way, which makes it hard to somehow manipulate routings, as some would call it.

carl92103

Several months ago after being delayed all day I asked a SFO RCC agent to check on an alternate flight and she said everything is sold out without checking the computer. I asked her why she didnt check the system and she said Tilton took a 40 million dollar bonus and we don’t have any money to fix the planes and they are all broken. I called for a supervisor and she sends an airport manager worse than her.

sandyweb33

Hey Lucky, u give UA plenty of business and as a 1K u should be treated like royalty. I hope u report this to a supervisor.

caseaustin

I am not sure about RCC agents, but in my experience most UA employees find the MRs amusing and have been very helpful! Just this afternoon a UA person from OAK called to let me know my flight from OAK-LAX was oversold and offered to rebook me SFO-IAD non-stop. After explaining I wanted that extra segment for miles, he was very understanding and gave me a routing which scored more miles!

exerda

It's been several years since I had DL status, but at the time (don't know if this is still the case, though; take it with a grain of salt), DL's SkyMiles program rules had something in them about not adding segments just to get more miles.

Edited to add: from the SkyMiles rules, it says:

Apologies for diverging into DL and MR discussions in the UA forum.

TechBoy

Was there any doubt that this was not part of the change in the rules?

It's clear that UA doesn't have any problem with MRs. What they have a problem with is MRs that involve significant manipulation of the itinerary to achieve a huge mileage windfall. They could change the rules to be as restrictive as DL, but that would punish legit customers who happen to need to book multi-leg trips (e.g., lack of other availability/time). Instead, they change the minimum, which shafts a lot of short haul customers. (Fortunately, it does not affect me as my shortest route is DCA-ORD.)

While I completely agree that the OP and others are just taking advantage of the rules of the program as it exists and have the right to do so, I must say that there is something just a bit smarmy about the attitude of these people. They want what they want without regard to the impact on other people. For something as silly as airline mileage and status . . . but to each his own . . .

exerda

Out of curiousity, what exactly is the "impact to other people" of either MRs, or standing by for a different routing?

(Status is far from "silly" IMHO, too... at 6'4", I need E+ and prefer the ability to get exit rows; and, if you fly more than a couple of times a year, status really helps when you get into irrops... among many other things. Now, some people lord their status over people, as, to pardon the cliche, a "status symbol," and that is silly.)

bostonpilot

As said, a bookable routing is a bookable routing, for whatever reason. UA sets the rulles, we follow them.

Anyway, when does a non-typical routing become a MR, and why should they care?

More than once I've flown BOS-DEN-SFO-HKG instead of BOS-ORD-HKG, and not for milage reasons. I actually had no kidding business to do in each city, all short meetings, so I got them all done on the way to the other side of the world.

The airlines are already the undisputed world champions of logic defying rules and policies (and financial managment?), maybe they are just annoyed that we have figured out a way to actually make them work in our favor for once?

Its sort of like the gratification I get from making the slime ball policies of the credit card companies actually work in my favor to earn me money instead of them ripping me off......

bhmlurker

This is so bizarre that I don't even know where to start. It almost sounds like what Ted would say, or rather, what people here on FT pretending to be Ted would say.

I wish you had replied

1. Hmmph, United really doesn't like employees like you, we'll get rid of employees like you soon.
2. You're not a good employee, insulting a customer.
3. In fact I'm an independent United customer service shopper, and it's good that we met, because now I have something to write about in my report.
4. Your name looks familiar, you're one of those infamously bad United employees here at SFO.
5. There's a few employees here that manage to deliver such bad service as you do, and we know them back where I am from.

Of course I understand why you didn't, and am glad that you reported this incident back to us

carl92103

An airline can't police a mileage run. They will take money anway they can get it. Why do u think they do double EQM becuase they know it will stimulate more traffic.

My travel is very heavy during the summer and fall and the double EQM's promo did not work for me but becuase of it I booked a few extra trips during that period.