Comments on: United makes MileagePlus worth less… again

By: Bobbo

Bobbo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:33:38 +0000

Yes, all frequent flyers, please rally to have this policy curbed before it does irrevocable damage and we all depart from United, possibly to some foreign airline. Here are some things that I sent to 1Kvoice, and did not get a satisfactory answer to.

A. Stated Justification for Upgrade Fee
Frankly, I find the explanations for the planned Upgrade Fee to be difficult to believe, especially that of increased demand. It is stated in the 1kVoice responses of Dec 15, 2008 and Nov 6, 2008 (copied below) that the “demand for Business and First Class cabins has increased significantly”, and “The change to the Mileage Upgrade Award structure enables us to respond to the demand”. In international flights that I recently took on United, there were empty seats in business class.

B. Logistics of Implementation of Upgrade Fee
I had noted in my (unanswered) note of Nov 12, 2008 that if the policy change is made, “One additional problem for travellers and United alike [will be] the need to arrange the payment at the Gate, since it will not be known in advance who is able to upgrade.” It seems obvious that the implementation of fees will add to the pandomonium at the time of boarding at the gate. Especially for the long-haul flights where fees will be collected for sure in order to upgrade, it seems clear that there will be disruption to the check-in process.

By: Expense report blues: Which add-on travel fees are being denied? | Upgrade: Travel Better

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:46:43 +0000

[...] such as American and (soon) United? Even less likely to be reimbursed, as one recent commenter noted. If it’s not part of the ticket, you’ve got a fight on your [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:49:16 +0000

The new soon to be instated policy of co-payment for upgrade has indeed rendered mileage plus useless.

As many business traveler, my employer is not willing to pay for additional upgrade fees separated from the ticket fee. UA is certainly not providing suc stellar business or first services that it woudl be worth spending much of my personal money.

As a Global Service / 1K customer I have notified UA that the day they put that policy into effect I will not use United Airlines ever again. I encourage all UA customers to send similar notices… May be they’ll reconsider the implications of their miguided plans…

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:59:24 +0000

I finally get elite status somewhere (2P in June and 1P in October), and now UA has to go and massively devalue the program. Figures. Did I mention that if you pay $4k or more for a J-class r/t they want you to pop down another $30 to hook up your iPod to the cabin entertainment system?

This is just like calling the help desk at work — you know, the “infernal support” line where they play the “we’re sorry for the inconvenience” message that really means “we don’t give a flying frak if you ever get your job done, so please go away and leave me alone while I do the sudoku.”

A pity, really; their TV commercials are the only thing United manages to do well. At least it beats Ryanair — until the next round.

By: Jesse W.

Jesse W. — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:31:14 +0000

worthless airline miles; I would have never guessed! haha!

By: Tino

Tino — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:18:12 +0000

I first read the headline wrong. Thought it said miles were “worthless” instead of “worth less.” Scared the crap out of me. Then again, with more changes like this, UA miles really will be worthless soon.

By: John

John — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:14:08 +0000

Funny…all of the Saver Business class seats to London from Denver are gone. Not a one available. I smell a pretty big rat. So much for saving up my miles for that trip to England next year.