United must have gotten a lot of complaints, as they’re reinstating the so-called “regional” upgrades:

1K® members will continue to earn Regional Upgrades
Sometimes no change is good news. After our last announcement, we heard from our 1K members how much they value their Regional Upgrades. To thank them for their ongoing loyalty, we’ve decided to continue issuing Regional Upgrades to 1Ks, even after the Unlimited Domestic Upgrades program launches.

That gives top-tier elites the best of both worlds: A reserved upgrade if booked in advance (and if United releases seats for upgrade early…) and the top of the free-upgrade list if they’re sweating it out at the gate.

And entry-level elites don’t really lose anything here. The 1Ks would be ahead of them in line, anyway.

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Separately, United and Continental announced that reciprocal “unlimited” upgrade privileges will roll out in mid-2010. No word yet on what the hierarchy will be; I assume that, in a tie, UA 1Ks will still outrank CO platinums…

And on the semi-upgrade front: Continental elites will also have free access to the Economy Plus section on United flights — a privilege which United hasn’t been extending to other Star Alliance partner travelers.

Upgraded: Your ability to earn lots of British Airways miles
Chase and British Airways have launched a pretty amazing airline mileage-earning credit card offer. 50,000 BA miles after one purchase, then 50,000 more after spending $2000 within three months. Gary Leff has thought this through and come up with a scheme for 420,000 miles between two people. That’s a lot of free tickets for a $75 annual fee.

Downgraded: Track suits
A Best Buy executive says that United refused him an upgrade because he was wearing a track suit. “United says there is no passenger dress code, but they cited two rules. Ticketed passengers can not be barefoot and must be clothed.” Standards!

Upgraded: Fees for Expedia phone bookings
Expedia announced that it was dropping the booking fees it charged for booking any flight, car rental, hotel or cruise on the phone. As online agencies compete to attract customers, this is the latest fee to drop. Yay, lower fees! Priceline immediately tweeted that they had never had phone booking fees. Nyahh.

Upgraded: Responsibility for rental car reservations
Avis Budget Group has worked with global booking systems to prepare their networks for an eventual introduction of no-show fees for car rental bookings. Frankly, I’m amazed that this is a fee that hasn’t been enforced more widely already.

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After famously breaking his guitar, United Airlines has managed to cause further trouble for David Carroll by losing his luggage — just as the Canadian singer-songwriter was en route to deliver a speech about customer service.

You can’t make this stuff up.

There have been two videos so far, both decrying United’s baggage handling and subsequent customer service. Personally, I thought that Carroll’s first video was his best. The second was okay, but felt like it was trying too hard, and didn’t add much. Yes, the third video in the trilogy is basically writing itself now.

(Thanks for the heads-up, John!)

What United is doing is eliminating the 500-mile electronic certificates and the regional-upgrades. (International systemwide upgrade certificates for 1K travelers are unchanged. Upgrades booked with miles, which will soon carry a cash copayment, are otherwise unaffected by these changes.)

Instead, all travelers with any elite status will be automatically eligible for an upgrade. Some implications for the changes:

• If you’re an entry-level elite (Premier) you’re not going to upgrade much. Previously, a Premier Executive or 1K would have to request an upgrade and offer up some certificates, but now those elites will automatically jump ahead of the Premiers. If you live in a city with a lot of United elites (Chicago, San Francisco, DC, Denver, for starters…) and you’re “just” a Premier, say adios to hot nuts.
• If you’re a 1K flier, you’re in good shape for shorter flights where you might not have otherwise bothered cashing in your upgrade currency. You’ll be at the top of the list for those short hops from Washington to Providence. Par-tay!
• But… 1Ks give up some security. The e-certificates that allowed upper-level elites to reserve upgrades at booking are kaputt. Adios, sure thing!
• Flights on “p.s.” service between New York/JFK and LAX or SFO are excluded from the “unlimited” upgrades. This is obnoxious — you’ll have to use miles or systemwide upgrade certs to move from economy to first? Puh-leeeze.

Within minutes of the announcement, Gary Leff and lucky each weighed in on the change. Neither of them found it to be an improvement. Read ‘em both for more critique.

Reader mail also started pouring in. And none were happy. A few excerpts:

Don writes:

“Unlimited”? My a**. I’m a Premier living in Chicago and flying mostly short hops. I guess I’ll be in Economy Plus forever. Hello American?

Taylor writes:

So they take away my confirmed-regional upgrades and make it a lottery? How is this an improvement?

Antonio writes:

This is genius marketing on United’s behalf, because on the surface it sounds like a fantastic proposition. UNLIMITED UPGRADES!!! But in reality, what they’re doing is cutting a program that gave upgrades earlier, allowing the airline more time to keep those seats free to possibly sell them to a paying customer.

SA nails the reason for making the change:

So Continental joins Star Alliance, and United is turning Mileage Plus into OnePass. At least there’s consistency across the North American partners.

And Tino sums it up:

So United wants to encourage gambling, instead of rewarding loyalty. Maybe their call center should merge with the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline.

In the end, Antonio’s objections noted, top-tier elites are the ones who come out looking best-of-the-worst in this new scheme. As you move down the totem pole, you’re less and less likely to benefit. And that, perhaps, is the point. United is rewarding its highest-spenders. But it’s harming its mid- and lower-tier spenders. And that seems like it could hurt them in the long run.

This leaves only American Airlines using the certificate-based method of reserving upgrades (for Gold and Platinum AAdvantage members). It will be interesting to see if low- and mid-tier United elites start defecting to American, or if American will join the rest of their peers in going “unlimited.”

That is, I “like” this fee within the context of existing checked-baggage fees. Had that line not already been crossed, I would have been firmly opposed. But baggage fees are reality in American airspace, alas. (Southwest is still fee-free; JetBlue charges $20 for the second fee, but nothing for the first. Reward good behavior if you can.) But if you’re flying United, and you can’t fly with carry-on alone, then you’re looking at a fee.

And some — just some — people who would be paying that fee might benefit from this new program.

Dubbed Premier Bags, the deal will particularly appeal to tour groups on the same itinerary, or to a large family with lots of bags:

With Premier Baggage, you and up to eight companions traveling under the same confirmation number can check up to two standard bags each without fees, where applicable, every time you travel within the United States or internationally on United® or United Express® operated flights during the year.

The purchase of a Premier Baggage annual subscription does not waive fees that would ordinarily be assessed for oversized and overweight bags and does not cover the cost of checking more than two standard bags.

The deal seems better suited to large parties than to an individual who takes multiple trips. Since you pay $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second, an individual would have to take 5 trips with the full complement of two bags each just to break even. (Or, if you’re able to plan ahead and pay for your checked bags online, you get a $5 discount per bag. In which case even 6 trips with two bags each don’t quite break even.) Depending on your itineraries, you could be at Premier status before completing your five or six trips — after which you’d pay nothing for checked bags.

What concerns me is the phrasing: “introductory price.” If this is a trial balloon, then look for the price to go up to $299 or higher. It might — might! — still be a value for some people at that price, but that number of people will grow smaller and smaller.

So how does the $249 subscription grab you? Hit the comments.

United has tested this sort of thing in the past, but only for their elite-level Mileage Plus members. The new program allows all members to redeem miles this way.

On the surface, this is a good thing, which is how the majority of the media are bound to spin it. More redemption opportunities are a good thing, clearly. The selection of hotels and car companies isn’t seemingly limited by proprietary side-deals and exclusivity arrangements. And there aren’t blackouts, which is nice. But simply having another place to spend your miles isn’t a huge improvement if the cents-per-mile value proposition stinks.

And yes, the value proposition stinks.

The FAQ’s don’t list the conversion rates up front, but open up a few new browser windows, run a few parallel hotel and car searches, run the math, and we’ve got our answer: about 0.75 cents per mile.

The 0.75 cents per mile number assumes that the cash-booking would be done with the supplier directly, with full cancellation possible. Which isn’t fair, since the United bookings aren’t cancellable. Changes incur a $35 fee.

So not only do you have harsher terms, you even get LESS than 0.75 cents per mile if an agency or consolidator offers a lower price for the same dates. In one test, I found night at the Intercontinental Boston in October that goes for 42,725 miles on the United site. The hotel chain’s own site has a rate of $329 a night for a cancellable reservation (0.77 cents/mile). Prepaid costs $297 (0.70 cents/mile).

If you’ve got more miles than you know what to do with, or the last thing you want to do is cash in miles for more travel, then this might be for you. But if your mileage balance is more down-to-earth, you’ll probably want to try spending your miles on travel — particularly long-haul travel in premium cabins — before you empty the piggybank for a rental car.

Related:
- Is Starwood Preferred Guest’s “SPG Flights” a game-changer?
- Cashing in miles, but not on flights
- Reader mail: What kind of point-earning credit card is best?
- Reader mail: Can I cash in miles for magazines?

In an age when online travel agencies are taking steps to improve price transparency by increasingly quoting the total price for airfare, rather than the deceptively-low price prior to taxes and fees, United Airlines is going the other way. This is particularly frustrating because their site used to quote fares more honestly.

Last week, United’s fare display shifted from quoting fares with all-in pricing to the new pre-tax/fee rates. At left, you’ll see a screenshot of a fare as it’s now quoted on the first results page. Yes, there’s a mention of additional fees and taxes to be added, but these used to be included in that box.

(One improvement in that display is the number of seats available at that price. This is something the major online travel agencies like Orbitz and Expedia have been offering for a while now, but it’s nice to see United offering it, too.)

Below, you’ll see what happens when you click through to the next page, and taxes are added in.

This change is raising the hackles of a number of United frequent fliers. Here’s an excerpt from a letter forwarded to me by reader Antonio:

Dear United,

I must say, I’m shocked at how bad the new online booking system is. It has all of the telltale signs of a “cheap discount” carrier, and I mean that in the worst possible way. To quote the price not including taxes and fees is misleading, and leaves a really bad impression on United once a user clicks on an itinerary and sees the price jump by a significant amount. And saying “Hurry, purchase today” at the top of a potential itinerary is just tacky.

If United wants to become Allegiant, then by all means continue down this path. But if United want to retain the status of being America’s premium flying option, then please retain an elegant website that treats the customers with respect and doesn’t try to pull a fast one in terms if pricing.

Though I would question the use of the term “retain” in referring to United in the same breath as “America’s premium flying option,” Antonio is absolutely right on other counts: United should treat customers with dignity and show the public the full price, like it did just one week earlier.

Related:
- Hotels will be forced to disclose fees and charges up front… but not to US customers
- Will airlines start unbundling fuel entirely from the fare?

Downgraded: American’s luggage fees
Speaking of fees, this is more or less the norm: American is raising its checked baggage fees by $5, both for the first piece (now $20) and the second ($30).

Downgraded: Open Skies
OpenSkies, the all-premium class British Airways subsidiary, is dropping its New York-JFK to Amsterdam route and is focusing entirely on flights from Paris to Newark and JFK. Just days after announcing that the airline was for sale. A shame.

Downgraded: Government architecture
Just when they started making customs and border crossing buildings a little more interesting, they go ahead and roll it all back: The 21-foot-high letters spelling “United States” were deemed a target, and thus a security risk. Words fail me.

Upgraded: Deals at Starwood hotels
Starwood is cutting rates by up to 50%, albeit off rack rates. “Limited time only,” they say, but no end date.

Upgraded: Headline writing
A Southwest Airlines flight made an emergency landing shortly after leaving Hartford, due to an electrical problem emanating from a coffeemaker, but you’ve gotta love the Times of London’s headline for the incident: “Southwest Airlines flight grounded by coffee aroma.”

Upgraded: Eco-designations for hotels
AAA is planning to note an “eco-friendly” designation in their TourBook travel guides for properties that participate in local, regional, or third-party eco-accreditation systems. The patchwork approach means that a hotel might make the cut in one state but not in another, based on regional variation.

But these deep discounts come with fine print. This past Friday, USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh posted that United’s most recent $118 all-in Tware between Chicago and Philadelphia didn’t earn Mileage Plus miles. Comments started rolling in, protesting the change — these were published fares, after all, why wouldn’t they earn miles?

These fares last only a short time — typically two or three hours — and the fare’s terms and conditions are no longer visible online.

I asked for clarification. Specifically, I tweeted for clarification. I asked United, in under 140 characters:

Within an hour, their response:

Not an encyclopedic answer, but this much is clear: All Twares are not created equal. Some are normal deep discount fares, much like weekend e-fares. Others aren’t. Another layer of complication in the airfare and frequent flyer game.

If miles matter to you, and if Twitter-only fares are up your alley, then you’ll need to read the fine print before you click the purchase button.

(See update at bottom)
United Airlines is running a 20% off — or more — “sale” on Mileage Plus Saver Awards for travel between August 18 through November 18.

Saver Awards only, not Standard. Economy class only, not first or business. United or United Express only, not Star Alliance partners. But if those conditions meet your needs, and the dates work, go ahead and burn some miles at favorable rates.

(Updated) That means 20,000 miles for a domestic ticket (instead of 25,000). 30K miles for a mainland to Hawaii ticket (instead of 40K). 25K to the Caribbean, 44K to Europe, 50K to Asia, and 64K to Australia. It’s almost like rolling their redemption chart back in time…

Will American, Delta, and others match? Stay tuned!

Hat tip to Gary Leff for this.

UPDATE: Now that it’s been leaked all over the internet, United puts up a link. Book between July 15 and July 24, 2009.

UPDATE 2: The sale is even better than originally posted. 20% and up discounts. E.g., flights to Hawaii are 30K instead of 32K as posted earlier. 25% off Hawaii, 28.5% off Caribbean, 23% off Asia. Nice sale. Original post is corrected to reflect correct #s.

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After musician Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell witnessed United Airlines baggage handlers tossing their instruments outside the aircraft, they feared the worst. And indeed, Carroll’s guitar was broken. He tried to get the airline to pay for its repair or replacement, but when regular channels failed, he broke out into song, instead. The result: The song and video, “United Breaks Guitars.” Watch it below. Toe-tapping may ensue.

Forget “Rhapsody in Blue,” this could become the new United theme…

I feel Carroll’s pain. In 1993, I checked a guitar as luggage on a British Airways flight from Zurich to New York via Heathrow. Though it was in a sturdy case, wrapped and taped up well, the guitar arrived (two days late) in pieces — the tape had all been cut off, and the case looked like it had been run over by a truck. Literally. Guitars and airlines clearly don’t mix.

Carroll has posted the entire backstory on his site. It’s not just the sight of guitars flying through the air. It’s the customer service runaround that got his goat. This is apparently song 1 in a three song trilogy.

It may have taken a video, but United is now ready to negotiate (the puns are included free):

Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based United, said late Tuesday afternoon that the airline has changed its course and wants to speak with Mr. Carroll today to settle the matter. She declined to comment further until she spoke to him. “This has struck a chord with us,” she said. “We’re going to contact him directly.”

(Thanks, Patrick!)

Tom Botts explains:

United [on Wednesday] informed a currently unknown number of travel agents that they would no longer be able to use the industry reconciliation system, ARC, to process tickets which were paid for with a credit card.

United is asking these travel agents to process credit card transactions themselves and then report the sale as a cash transaction. Until now, when a travel agency (or OTA) has sold a published ticket on United (or any other carrier) the credit card is actually processed by the airline. As such, the airline is responsible for paying the 2-3% (in rough numbers) that Amex, Visa, Mastercard and Discover charge for using their cards. In the new world proposed by United, agents will process the credit cards themselves (presumably along with an additional consumer fee) and then remit the full amount of the ticket back to United. This would obviously save a considerable amount of money for United if widely adopted.

“If widely adopted.” Which, in the airline industry, means that this practice is about to become universal.

This could mean the reversal of the online travel agencies’ “no fee for airline bookings” policies that took hold with the majors in the last few months.

And reinstating the fee would be justified, frankly, if this goes beyond United. If the agenc is the one charging the cost of the ticket, then the agency is the one who bears the financial risks (primarily from chargebacks), and the agency is the one who would need to seek the refund of their money from the airline.

This also messes with the economics of ticket sales from the airline’s perspective, and not necessarily in an obvious way. Previously, airlines wanted to bring all sales to their own websites. Now, there’s actually a financial incentive for United to have the agencies book the ticket. A $200 ticket purchased on united.com yields about $195 for the airline, after credit card fees are backed out. The same ticket sold by an agency would now yield $200 for the airline.

The bottom line: This is going to tick a lot of people off. Agencies are already upset. Customers will be soon.