Nicholas

Someone here mentioned that often, when they can't find seats on LH within Europe, they are offered seats on OS, LX, etc. For us, it's awkward flying from FRA to MUC via VIE or ZRH, given that there are so many LH non-stops a day. But for UA, they still have to compensate OS or LX. That makes me think that they just don't want to pay LH, perhaps because their bilateral agreement is less beneficial for UA. But UA management will never discuss that, and neither will LH.

glex50

You're saying that if you prevent someone from using an advertised benefit, then it doesn't cost you anything. Exactly.

Don't get me wrong, I don't blame UA for screening F on SQ or the TG nonstops to the US if those were too costly to keep the program in balance. But intra-Europe on LH, and destinations that are only serviced by LH, is a different matter.

I understand UA should have the ability to control these costs. But it's gotten to be simply ridiculous if they block flights wholesale because they don't want to pay LH. If they said that LH intra-Europe flights are off the table, then the program would look less valuable.

I think it's simpler than that, but maybe it's not. I suspect that they saw LH awards as a line-item, and wanted to cut it. That doesn't necessarily mean that LH costs more per redemption than LX, SK, or any of the other European members, but that UA wanted to reduce the size of that particular item. The bi-product is that most people give up on using miles for a star award, stick to UA, or just let the miles expire.

There's also a lot of talk in this thread about having the liability of miles on the books....Are miles actually accounted for as a liability anymore? I thought they were just deferred revenue from ticket purchases. If that's the case then they wouldn't be a true liability on the books, since the cost would hit the airline's books when they're earned.

JS1K

Got final leg of a South African trip confirmed this morning. I have been trying to get Europe to SA in F or C but today ANA found a seat available - called 1K desk and after a few minutes looking got confirmation that is was available and I was booked. I had tried for weeks to get LX flights which Expertflyer showed available - not available now. Never could get those. So perhaps article has changed something. Any once else getting good results.

cstead

Perhaps *net runs on New Zealand time, and now that its October 1st, the quotas for the month have reset?

kevinsac

I just made F reservations on LH right after the holidays. I was hoping to fly over thru FRA, for the FCT, but had to settle on SFO-MUC. Coming home is thru FRA!

I had not dificulty....maybe since this time, I'm only booking one flight.

MarkXS

No. Preventing someone from using an advertised benefit does cost UA something. It costs UA future business from those of us who are onto this scam and finally fed up with it.

Just got off the phone with HNL 1K International desk. LH intra-europe flight I wanted is still available on ANA and still invisible to UA reps. The first-level rep, and the supervisor I escalated to, both had not heard a thing about the WashTimes article and were still saying "the other airlines don't make everything available to UA". I informed them that though they didn't know it, their management was telling them to lie to loyal paying customers by management lying to the agents. Did direct the supervisor to the article.

When I asked the supervisor for a manual sell of this flight, she said "doing a manual sell is an automatic fire." I suggested that perhaps their union, IAM, might not like the fact that UA agents are being told to lie to customers.

Nicholas

Could you PM me the person's name if you have it? I know their boss who didn't know about the filtering, either, but now she does, and I want to make sure she tells her employees.

cstead

I'm the first person to bash UA at any chance I get, but perhaps this could land said UA agent in trouble? I'd hate for someone at HNL to lose his/her job because of this

afrugal1

^^^

imm2b

I was looking at ANA website for an award in C for next March. I found LAX-NRT available on NH, however, HNL call center agent I talked to just now said she's not seeing it. She said, NH is not releasing the seat to UA, Oh really?. I mentioned the article to her, she seems surprised. She wants to see the article for herself. LOL.

rfrost

Nicholas, thanks for airing UA's dirty little secret. Maybe full public scrutiny will bring about a much-needed change?

snic

I don't disagree that UA management consists of weasels, but the value of the miles really depends on what you use them for. UA has one of the most generous international upgrade policies of any airline (30k miles + H fare = C class; not to mention 6 free SWUs for 1Ks per year). If that's what you use miles for (and earn miles to get SWUs for), rather than completely free trips, then UA's miles are far from worthless.

And come on, I'm sure it's nice to fly SQ or LH F, but I think a lot of people would view ~120,000 miles for a transpacific round-trip in UA F (full fare cost: ~$8,000+) to be a decent value. Such awards aren't trivial to get either, but they are possible - and easier than *A awards in F on some routes.

kb1992

Completely agree.

In fact, transpacific in C costs $13,000-$18,000 and F costs up to $25,000.

Mister Nice

Has anyone emailed Tilton a copy of the article and asked for his reply ???

lucky9876coins

How about we write an open letter to Mileage Plus/Tilton/Atkinson regarding Starnet blocking, now that step one is complete? We could collect signatures, and I'm sure if we got enough we wouldn't have a problem getting it to the attention of those we want to hear from.

Thoughts?