Comments on: Unlimited domestic upgrades coming to United elites next year

By: United Fails Miserably in Smoothly Rolling out Unlimited Domestic Upgrades | Crazy Hawt

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:43:09 +0000

[...] My business travel landed me a BOS-SFO flight on March 19, 2010, the day United Airlines is set to roll out unlimited domestic upgrades. While I suspected that flights on the 19th would be completely messed up, from an IT systems [...]

By: 1kflyer

1kflyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:09:13 +0000

As a United elite, I now have to compete with Continental elites for upgrades and economy plus on my home airline which is UA.
United has just diluted it’s 1K status and as a business traveller who books travel at the last moment, paying the higher economy fare, I will be stuck in the back seat, while the Continental elites move into the First Class and Economy plus seats for FREE! Time to look elswhere.

By: LtotheJ

LtotheJ — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:37:26 +0000

so let me get this straight. The airline wants to treat the people who GIVE THEM LOTS OF MONEY better, and treat people WHO TRY TO FLY AS CHEAPLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE the shaft… while this is clearly bad for most of us who try to buy cheap tickets (and I’m 100% in that camp with most of you) .. doesn’t it make a little bit of sense that the high-fare passengers are the ones UA wants to reward, since those are the only ones they make any money on?

By: rdgwalker

rdgwalker — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:02:51 +0000

The PS routes are going to be hurt by this new plane. I fly PS every month to SFO and upgrade most times. People are not going to use miles or SWUs. BC and FC will be empty. Most people will be screwed by this program

By: Bonus Miles And Point » Blog Archive » United to Move to Unlimited Complimentary Elite Domestic Upgrades Second Quarter of 2010

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:44:27 +0000

[...] beat me to the punch. United, under the signature of Robert Sahadevan who is Vice President for Mileage Plus, announced [...]

By: sam merc

sam merc — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:53:02 +0000

I agree with jsgoldbe, the former system is much better! It is what made UA better than other airlines. Higher level elites had to pick and choose their flights to upgrade. Now they don’t so they will get them all the time. I suspect that UA will lose some low level loyal customers. I also suspect that this is a way to make people pay for the upgrades — miles plus cash instead of regional upgrades and 500 certificates.
And those of you in doubt, yes, regionals are gone and so are 500 mile upgrades.

By: United downgrades its upgrades | Upgrade: Travel Better

United downgrades its upgrades | Upgrade: Travel Better — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:37:12 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: jsgoldbe

jsgoldbe — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:10:34 +0000

Nooooooooo! I switched teams this year from UA to NWA/Delta due to a relocation. Was a 1P (technically still am, but basically zero EQMs this year). If I knew this was coming I might have stuck around, since by not flying from a UA hub the upgrade chances were actually decent. Sorry UA.

Secondly, I actually liked the former upgrade system on UA. It differentiated UA from most of the other US legacies. Because you had to pick which flights to attempt to upgrade on, some availability was still left for the lower level elites. Now higher level elites get the upgrade whether they would have used 500s or CR1s or not.

By: HunterSFO

HunterSFO — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:08:06 +0000

@Other Hunter – this is NOT a big win!!! Now getting an upgrade on UA will be like getting one on CO – IMPOSSIBLE! Also this program doesn’t apply to p.s. routes which are my favorite ones, and they are taking away CR1′s so the only way to get one on p.s. is to burn a SWU or pay a co-pay and miles. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!!! Also we can no longer sponsor an upgrade for someone unless burning a SWU or paying a co-pay and miles. Suddenly more people will be using SWU inside region 1 and our upgrades won’t clear anymore unless we are on super high fare buckets. This is TERRIBLE!

By: MatthewLAX

MatthewLAX — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:04:06 +0000

@Lucky:

Who says Hunter can’t be reasonable?!