Mosaic

Great thread. I live in Erie, Pa. where US had over 75% of the traffic. This past year Erie was the third fastest growing airport in the country...Dulles first, and I did not catch the second. With this expansion, US is now less than 25% (and dropping) of the traffic. Many weekly travelers now go on the other airlines. Many indeed were preferred members. It is sad. I personally fly what I need to at this point, loyalty aside.

vicrock

I thought I was done - dropped to silver this year from Gold - and took a flight in Feb (one of the first "box meal in first " flights. Swore that was my last - have flownd NW and CO mostly.

But I'm required to find the lowest fare, so I'm back on US this week - SEA - PIT- BWI - the return is on U metal.

I'm really trying to stay away.

geo1005

I was Priority then Priority Gold then Preferred Plus then finally Gold Preferred then CP, CP, CP for three years.
Now I am Silver ( a gift) and have no intention of attempting to get to Preferred again. What's left in my US account is getting burned on Star Alliance partners.

And I'm collecting AA miles and SPG points now.

Tell me why I'd use my points on a US-plastic-cupped-FC flight again?

otralot

I swear I hear the fat lady singing

ClueByFour

Whoa. That's all folks (cue Bugs).

(For Geo's sake, I'll , but in general, this merits a ).

bofie

I'm CP for years and will make it again this year, but I'm getting more and more miles on AA. They comped me Platinum with a very easy challenge. The website is great. FC still is pretty much FC.

schistosomiasis

My brother has been silver since 2003 and gold since 2004. Last year had about 65,000 elite miles, most on high- priced fares (flying out of ITH), probably spent about $7000 to $8000 on US metal.

This year: 0 elite miles, one 50,000 mile award redeemed MAD-PHL

Why? Still very loyal to US. He graduated from Cornell (who paid for all of the $7000 for his tickets to conferences) and now lives in BCN. He'll still fly BCN-PHL or MAD-PHL but no more schlepping accross the pond every month or two!

biggs

Now that Geo has defected, the end is near.

The only hang up I have on not giving everything to AA is 100 segments to make CP is nice. I stopped at 60 with AA last year but may take anything over 60 with US over to UA. Hedging for the future.

osxanalyst

When US joined *A, the writing was on the wall for me, having previously accumulated miles/status on US and AC. I did continue earning a little on US last year (when the comp upgrade was important), making GP, but split my travel on UA to get 1P there as well. This year all UA - half way to 1K already, and couldn't be happier with my decision.

I agree with a prior poster - UA E+ is better than US F. Im a skinny guy with a bunch of gifted drink coupons from a 1K buddy who flies almost exclusively international C. Plus, I fly a lot international C as well so I never seem to run out of UA e-upgrades. Can't wait for the SWU's when I make 1K.

jetsetter

Background: I have been GP for some years now, and last year flew approx 130 segments reaching CP for the first time. Before that was a CO flyer reaching Plat one year. Also dabbled with DL, but left them quickly due to their stupid simply good business initiative.

Moving now US more to UA because:
1. I don't find as a CP that I am treated much better than a Gold, especially over the phone. A recent example involved a same day change I was trying to make with the CP desk. Basically I was on a changeable ticket, and Y was sold out, and the agt at the CP desk wanted to put me in F and charge me more rather than just booking me in to F. This was for a flight leaving in a few hours. The phone agts try too many times to refare tickets rather than just revalidating and accepting them as is. Also at the airport, too many agents are strict now. I find my luck is better with UA, and that on balance UA is more consistently accommodating and lieniant with their frequent flyers about bending ticketing rules. Also it seems that even the CP desk agts must go through a supervisor for the most mundane of exceptions. E.g. you are on a connection, and the connector is running late and it looks like you might (but not surely yet) misconnect. CP agt had to ask the supv if ok to reaccom in Y on the nonstop flight. I expect them to be empwoered to help me. Expect person answering the phone to be able to make these decisions on their own. Of course there are exceptions to this, but have found it on balance true with US especially over the phone. If I am going to fly a carrier 100 + segments a year I don't really feel ashamed to ask for a bit of flexibility I actually think a smart airline could use waivers/favors to try to attract more frequent flyers, and build brand loyalty;
2. Decline Of First Class: Plastic cups, cold sandwiches on transconn, decline of shuttle product to just another mainline flight, etc. General lack of meals. To compare, UA just introduced P.S. for transcon flights, and I got a nice dinner on an ORD BOS flight;
3. Decline of IFE: Shuttle used to have Fox News Now, and whether or not Fox is your favorite, it was cool to get the headlines. UA has audio on any jet flight, and ch9 (listen to ATC) is on 85% of the time;
4. Overall decline: US just doesn't seem like a "fun" airline anymore for the pax, employees, etc. I don't think on balance most employees are thrilled, and would you be with 20% or more pay cut. You don't here about US being an innovater anymore, they're just often seemingly struggling to keep a pulse. UA, while not in great shape, still has put forth ameneties that benefit the customer like the P.S. service, and they have not gutted the product like US has. I mean cold sandwiches on transcons in first class! I don't fly transcon much, but still, the idea, is that the kind of company to fly with?

So perhaps will go for UA 1K this year. I already have US3 locked in through 2/2007. But old habbits die hard, so you'll probably see me on US flights, and they do have some east coast routings that are more convenient. However, again, sometimes they try to charge a lot more. E.g. UA offering $39 BOS to IAD and US lowest published RT is $200+ right now. Heck for that difference, I could take a stretch limo from IAD to DCA. I'll pay a bit more, but not hundreds more. Also I think the Go Fares momentum has been lost. Look at BOS PHL, where are the Go Fares? The Go Fares have gone up . Why isn't US expanding Go Fares, they did have a bit of momentum, oh yeah, they're just struggling to keep the pulse? Who knows if this is true, and there have been untrue rumores before, but latest I have heard is that people think it will shut down end of 6/2005? Some guy told me that who said he knows a lot of people on the inside for what thats worth .

longing4piedmont

And the saga continues

5/1/05 (HKY)/(ATL)/(JAN)
5/2/05 (JAN) /(ATL)/(BHM)
5/3/05 (BHM)/(ATL)/(MSY)
5/4/05 (MSY)/(ATL)/(MEM)
5/6/05 (MEM)/(ATL)/(HKY)

(sure hope the weather is good in ATL next week)

Fare will be $1810 on DL vs $2700 on US. All but one segment on US are on a BJ. Two of DL's are BJ's.

The week of 5/9 is the sad one however. HKY/PIT/CLE/HKY is $600 on DL. US wanted over $1,100 from GSO and this used to be US's back yard. How very sad

bhatnasx

Well, I guess I'm in the minority here - I got comped to Gold on US last year (when we thought they were really going under) & did a MR on them to top off my account (I had 6K & found a way to get 19K for about 130 bucks all-in in one day with bonuses via a DCA-PHX route - figured my 6K was worth 130 bucks to convert into a free ticket). Then the SEA-FCO fare came along for 235 all-in + 30K miles per direction to upgrade, so I actually *bought* miles from US & transferred the rest of my AA miles into US from points.com to get the 30K to upgrade for that trip. I then took a business trip for work where I had to book US since it was the cheapest from DCA-HVN - 300 less than DL wanted (and I'm a NW Gold too). So I booked that - then I got rebooked from a DL flight on UA & earned for US (had UA Premier last year, but out of DC, that's just not even worth it with all the 1K's & UGS's & lack of upgrades). Now, b/c of the 2.00 LEB fares, which I booked a ticket DCA-LEB-SAN-LEB-DCA, I'll actually qualify (albeit at an roach price) for Silver. I then bought more tix for work on US (even though they are not a "preferred vendor" for my company) because they were significantly cheaper than everyone else & had to cancel so now I've got a couple hundred dollar credit. I'm definitely going to qualify for Silver this year (as I'm Gold now) & depending on how work goes, may (hopefully) get back up to Gold. I've got confidence in US & whereas their product quality ain't the best, they do get me where I need to go & generally on time.

My friend who was an earned Silver last year, signed up for some fast track to Gold promo & they still don't show his status even though he completed it & they agree he completed it - but won't correct it - is planning on quitting US since they've lost his bags on his past 2 flights. On the way back from FCO, they sent his luggage to St. Petersburg & on the way home from DEN, they lost his bags & sent him a different customers bags 3 days later. The shortly corrected it & offered him 20K miles or something like that.

GadgetFreak

But I thought the cutbacks in service was due to cheaper fares? Maybe they are trying to be a LSC - Low Service Carrier.

BillMorrow

An indicator for me on whether elites are leaving the airline is this forum. Traffic in the US section has dropped significantly. Last year, there would be over a page of active threads on a daily basis. Now there is less than half of that.

Additionally, I've noticed a change in the mix of F passengers on week days. There hasn't been nearly as many people in F dressed for business on my flights in recent months. Also, Silvers seem to be getting upgraded more. All this points towards US driving away its best (and most profitable) customer, the elite business traveller.

Babu

I guess they drove away all the business travellers away from my company (a big 4 accounting firm) when they remain the only major US carrier not to supply us with negotiated corporate discounts.