The demise of UA Connection software
Jun 19, 2001, 12:01 pm
#31
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Monterey, CA, USA
Posts: 115
Was just re-booking a reservation at the 1k desk and when I mentioned the United Connection demise on July 20, I was told "you will now be able to do your bookings on Orbitz, you know the new service that was started by United and other airlines". When I asked where this information canme from the res agent said that this is what they were told. Hard to believe how bad the communications process works at United.
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Jun 19, 2001, 12:14 pm
#32
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Madison NJ; Watopia
Posts: 3,161
Studdert's email (confirmed): [email protected]
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Who is John Galt?
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Who is John Galt?
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Jun 19, 2001, 1:48 pm
#33
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Monterey, CA, USA
Posts: 115
Just received this e-mail as an answer. Looks like we will all be getting the usual "canned" message. Good for a laugh (or cry?)
Hello Axel,
Thank you for your email. Your support of the United Connections
product has been an integral part of its success and a component of the
loyalty its customers have shown. We would like to thank you for your
support of this product and our customers and for your support of this
transition process. We are continuously looking at the website for new
enhancements and hope that all you found good about United Connections
will soon be available with United.com. I will make sure your concerns
are forwarded to appropriate management.
Regards,
Kathy
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Hello Axel,
Thank you for your email. Your support of the United Connections
product has been an integral part of its success and a component of the
loyalty its customers have shown. We would like to thank you for your
support of this product and our customers and for your support of this
transition process. We are continuously looking at the website for new
enhancements and hope that all you found good about United Connections
will soon be available with United.com. I will make sure your concerns
are forwarded to appropriate management.
Regards,
Kathy
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Jun 19, 2001, 1:52 pm
#34
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: 1K from SMF (Home of the Kings)
Posts: 314
Here's a response from "Kathy" at the e-mail address the letter said to use for questions.
Obviously, I pleaded only the issues that affect me, that is the lack of senior pricing quotes and the inability to complete my reservation at a CTO or ticket counter when I have coups or certs to use.
Kathy's response to my e-mail:
From:
[email protected]
Date:
Tue, 19 Jun 2001 13:47:18 -0500
Subject:
RE: Discontinuance of UCNX
To:
[email protected]
Hello Charles,
Thank you for your email. We appreciate you and your
business and want
to prove worthy of your support. Your support of the
United
Connections product has been an integral part of its
success and a
component of the loyalty its customers have shown. We
would like to
thank you for your support of this product and our
customers and for
your support of this transition process. We are
continuously looking at
the website for new enhancements and hope that all you
found good about
United Connections will soon be available with United.com.
At this time
we are unable to apply any discount certificates or senior
discounts to
web bookings. I will make sure your concerns are
forwarded to
appropriate management.
Regards,
Kathy
Obviously, I pleaded only the issues that affect me, that is the lack of senior pricing quotes and the inability to complete my reservation at a CTO or ticket counter when I have coups or certs to use.
Kathy's response to my e-mail:
From:
[email protected]
Date:
Tue, 19 Jun 2001 13:47:18 -0500
Subject:
RE: Discontinuance of UCNX
To:
[email protected]
Hello Charles,
Thank you for your email. We appreciate you and your
business and want
to prove worthy of your support. Your support of the
United
Connections product has been an integral part of its
success and a
component of the loyalty its customers have shown. We
would like to
thank you for your support of this product and our
customers and for
your support of this transition process. We are
continuously looking at
the website for new enhancements and hope that all you
found good about
United Connections will soon be available with United.com.
At this time
we are unable to apply any discount certificates or senior
discounts to
web bookings. I will make sure your concerns are
forwarded to
appropriate management.
Regards,
Kathy
Jun 19, 2001, 2:10 pm
#35
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: LAX and LHR. UA lifetime Gold 1.9MM 1K , DL Gold Medallion, HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold, Avis President's Club
Posts: 3,592
I agree with what everyone else has said. This is nothing less than a tragedy, and very short-sighted. I'll especially miss the ability to see all available flights on all carriers, not just the 20 United chooses to let you see, and the ability to check seat maps for all classes, regardless of what I'll eventually book (great for planning upgrade travel, too).
What I won't miss is the inability to see the class of fare that you're booking until you've purchased it and viewed the receipt. The website has spoilt me for this (though have you noticed the number of times recently since special internet fares started that the class of fare you get on the website is actually the date of travel and not a fare class at all?). I could forgive the website a great deal if it would allow me to specify the class of fare I want to purchase for each segment, rather than just giving me lowest available coach or unrestricted coach. I often need H or M internationally rather than Y/B or V/W/Q. If UC does continue, this would be something to press for here as well.
Have you noticed how the UC software is already starting to crumble? It's no longer possible to specify a time beyond certain parameters. If the opening display is 6:00am and you want any pm time, bad luck. Scrolling up, as soon as you hit 12:00pm the system crashes and dumps you out. An "Exception" error message warns you just before this happens.
It's also interesting that when scrolling the next time to appear after 6:00am is 1:00am and then you can continue as normal, up as far as 11:00am without crashing. Getting wise to this, I now scroll up to 11:00am and stop there. The problem is that if you then start planning a new itinerary without exiting the system, it remembers your previous time but displays another. In the example just given, you've specified 11:00am, so that is what you will get when starting to plan your next itinerary, even though the display will say 6:00am. No flights earlier than 11:00 will be shown. If you forget where you are and try to scroll to a later time, you'll get dumped out again. Scrolling back down brings the display back into sync with the system.
Another problem is that UC doesn't recognize airport locations that have come in since it was last updated, particularly if they're "ficitious" ones like XYD.
All this has started happening in the past few days. Obviously United is hoping we'll get fed up with the glitches and change to the website. Some hope, while it's as slow and klunky and dysfunctional as it is now.
As someone who has planned thousands of itineraries on UC over the past six years (though naturally I've not flown all of them!), I'm in despair.
[Edited for bold type errors, etc.]
[This message has been edited by 1P (edited 06-19-2001).]
What I won't miss is the inability to see the class of fare that you're booking until you've purchased it and viewed the receipt. The website has spoilt me for this (though have you noticed the number of times recently since special internet fares started that the class of fare you get on the website is actually the date of travel and not a fare class at all?). I could forgive the website a great deal if it would allow me to specify the class of fare I want to purchase for each segment, rather than just giving me lowest available coach or unrestricted coach. I often need H or M internationally rather than Y/B or V/W/Q. If UC does continue, this would be something to press for here as well.
Have you noticed how the UC software is already starting to crumble? It's no longer possible to specify a time beyond certain parameters. If the opening display is 6:00am and you want any pm time, bad luck. Scrolling up, as soon as you hit 12:00pm the system crashes and dumps you out. An "Exception" error message warns you just before this happens.
It's also interesting that when scrolling the next time to appear after 6:00am is 1:00am and then you can continue as normal, up as far as 11:00am without crashing. Getting wise to this, I now scroll up to 11:00am and stop there. The problem is that if you then start planning a new itinerary without exiting the system, it remembers your previous time but displays another. In the example just given, you've specified 11:00am, so that is what you will get when starting to plan your next itinerary, even though the display will say 6:00am. No flights earlier than 11:00 will be shown. If you forget where you are and try to scroll to a later time, you'll get dumped out again. Scrolling back down brings the display back into sync with the system.
Another problem is that UC doesn't recognize airport locations that have come in since it was last updated, particularly if they're "ficitious" ones like XYD.
All this has started happening in the past few days. Obviously United is hoping we'll get fed up with the glitches and change to the website. Some hope, while it's as slow and klunky and dysfunctional as it is now.
As someone who has planned thousands of itineraries on UC over the past six years (though naturally I've not flown all of them!), I'm in despair.
[Edited for bold type errors, etc.]
[This message has been edited by 1P (edited 06-19-2001).]
Jun 19, 2001, 2:15 pm
#36
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: UA Plat 2MM. DL Plat, AS MVP
Posts: 12,752
I was in mourning when easysabre was killed off. This is just as bad, if not worse. UAL connection allowed us to create complex bookings with various classes of service connecting wherever we want.
Jun 19, 2001, 2:21 pm
#37
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: sacramento,ca.,usa
Posts: 256
Anyone know how they decide how many bonus miles to offer in the letter regarding the demise of United Connection. They offered me 5000 to book on the ual website. Plus, 2000 more if I hadn't used it before.
Jun 19, 2001, 2:31 pm
#38
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Boston
Programs: UA 1K, 2MM
Posts: 956
I'm getting more and more wound up about this. I read these posts and ask can UA really be this shortsighted??? I agree with Indurain : if they want to save money, shut the direct phone line connections, but keep the regular ISP connection.
The main reason I have stayed with UA has been this one product, which gives me so much control over my travel. I have been very tempted over the years to switch to AA, but UACXN kept me on UA. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars each year on UACXN - I only ever bought one UA web ticket and that was just to get some bonus when the site first came up. It was some trivial BOS-SFO flight. Just yesterday I was pricing a BOS-ARN-MMA-LHR-BOS trip on UACXN. I tried today doing that on Orbitz, Travelocity, and UAL.com - I almost screamed with frustration.
I hope UA is reading this board.....
The main reason I have stayed with UA has been this one product, which gives me so much control over my travel. I have been very tempted over the years to switch to AA, but UACXN kept me on UA. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars each year on UACXN - I only ever bought one UA web ticket and that was just to get some bonus when the site first came up. It was some trivial BOS-SFO flight. Just yesterday I was pricing a BOS-ARN-MMA-LHR-BOS trip on UACXN. I tried today doing that on Orbitz, Travelocity, and UAL.com - I almost screamed with frustration.
I hope UA is reading this board.....
Jun 19, 2001, 2:32 pm
#39
Used to be MBS PremExec
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Saginaw, MI (MBS)
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM, Marriott Titanium w/Lifetime Plat, Hilton LIfetime ♢, National Exec, Amex Plat
Posts: 5,722
I received the identical "Instant Response--Just Add Water" that the above posts mention.
I find it interesting that twice in the letter it is referred to as "United Connections"...Funny how their employees don't even know anything about it.
Ctrl+Atl+Soapbox/On:
Maybe if they all did know about it and promoted it appropriately, it would be successful...But that would be 'forward thinking', and I don't think United knows how to do that these days.
Atl+Tab+Soapbox/Off
I find it interesting that twice in the letter it is referred to as "United Connections"...Funny how their employees don't even know anything about it.
Ctrl+Atl+Soapbox/On:
Maybe if they all did know about it and promoted it appropriately, it would be successful...But that would be 'forward thinking', and I don't think United knows how to do that these days.
Atl+Tab+Soapbox/Off
Jun 19, 2001, 3:39 pm
#40
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: NYC
Programs: UA MileagePlus 2MM
Posts: 1,567
ZRS70 i agree with you - i really mourned the day when easysabre was killed off favour of the "much easier to use" travelocity. easysabre had so many great features.
i have never used a united connection but i sympathize with everyone hear. maybe the reason united is doing away with it is that only a very small percentage of users utilize united connection vs. united.com. - at least that is what happened to easysabre - i was told less than 1% of users vs. the rest at travelocity.
anyway just wishing you all good luck - by the way was there a united connection for macs?
adam
i have never used a united connection but i sympathize with everyone hear. maybe the reason united is doing away with it is that only a very small percentage of users utilize united connection vs. united.com. - at least that is what happened to easysabre - i was told less than 1% of users vs. the rest at travelocity.
anyway just wishing you all good luck - by the way was there a united connection for macs?
adam
Jun 19, 2001, 3:51 pm
#41
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: DCA/IAD -- UA 1K MM
Posts: 47
I just received the canned response too. Infuriating. I've taken one more run at "Kathy" with a much more pointed message, but frankly I'm not expecting much. Will post to the board if I receive anything of note.
1P, I agree completely. While there's no question that the software has plenty of warts, and may in fact be starting to crumble in places, the overwhelming (unanimous?) sentiment appears to be that we'd happily live with it for the indefinite future rather than switch to the Web site - even if they never make another change to it.
I'm simply incredulous (or maybe I shouldn't be!?) that this is all lost on UA.
1P, I agree completely. While there's no question that the software has plenty of warts, and may in fact be starting to crumble in places, the overwhelming (unanimous?) sentiment appears to be that we'd happily live with it for the indefinite future rather than switch to the Web site - even if they never make another change to it.
I'm simply incredulous (or maybe I shouldn't be!?) that this is all lost on UA.
Jun 19, 2001, 6:49 pm
#42
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Lake Oswego, OR
Programs: UA 1K 2MM, Marriott Lifetime Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,202
I have happily used the United Connection software since its inception and, though its has been occasionally idiosyncratic, I have always been very pleased with it. It is clearly the product of intelligent and thoughtful design; I have enjoyed the ability to search for fares amongst a range of dates, defer payment so I could use a voucher, make travel arrangements for friends, relatives and ,colleagues book complex itineraries and even book trips comprised of multiple disparate fare classes. All executed at a reasonable speed and under the guidance of a fairly intuitive interface. I just booked two itineraries today, one of which I tried (and failed) to book used the web.
As has already been well stated, the web software is ponderously slow, inflexible and poorly conceived. Lately, it has lostsome of what little functionality it ever had. I cannot even get a glimmer of an estimated price until I plod through multiple screens, select some prospective segments and wait (and wait some more) for it to price out my anticipated itinerary. If I do not like what I see, I must start again and re-select segments from the beginning. Often the web version does not even provide me with segments that I know are available in my preferred fare class.
Now that UA has seriously adulterated the quality of service and amenities to ridiculously low levels on their flights, perhaps they are trying to add "balance" by rendering the booking experience substandard as well. I guess its a way of preparing us for what's to come after we actually board the flight.
Given that UA is no longer interested in this great product, perhaps if we all chipped in, we could convince them to sell it to us.
I cannot imagine they would want very much for it -- perhaps we could buy it with miles. I am sure that with all of the technical expertise extant on FlyerTalk, we could make a go of it. We certainly couldn't do any worse than the alternative.
As has already been well stated, the web software is ponderously slow, inflexible and poorly conceived. Lately, it has lostsome of what little functionality it ever had. I cannot even get a glimmer of an estimated price until I plod through multiple screens, select some prospective segments and wait (and wait some more) for it to price out my anticipated itinerary. If I do not like what I see, I must start again and re-select segments from the beginning. Often the web version does not even provide me with segments that I know are available in my preferred fare class.
Now that UA has seriously adulterated the quality of service and amenities to ridiculously low levels on their flights, perhaps they are trying to add "balance" by rendering the booking experience substandard as well. I guess its a way of preparing us for what's to come after we actually board the flight.
Given that UA is no longer interested in this great product, perhaps if we all chipped in, we could convince them to sell it to us.
I cannot imagine they would want very much for it -- perhaps we could buy it with miles. I am sure that with all of the technical expertise extant on FlyerTalk, we could make a go of it. We certainly couldn't do any worse than the alternative.
Jun 19, 2001, 7:45 pm
#43
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Minnesota, USA
Posts: 846
my attempt to forward my letter to jim.goodwin has so far not been returned. I suggest we keep on sending to him and recruiting other UA loyalists to do same. He may be the only one who can reverse this stupid decision.
Jun 19, 2001, 8:03 pm
#44
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,636
I, too, have sent an email to the following:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
I've also snail mail a letter to David Milobsky.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
I've also snail mail a letter to David Milobsky.
Jun 19, 2001, 8:29 pm
#45
Join Date: May 2000
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Posts: 1,960
You know, there was a version of this very software which *AA* was distributing about the same time as UA's version. I chucked the disks, since I had the UA version. Anyone know if AA's version is still alive and/or operating?