United Airlines is taking its upgrade list transparency to the next level. Is this just a customer friendly change in line with United’s big tech focus, or what’s the carrier’s motivation for such a move?
Continue reading: United Airlines Now Publishes Upgrade List 30 Days In Advance
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
anyone that thinks that knowing your position on a waitlist weeks, let alone a month in advance is meaningful is beyond naive.
and, no, it will not maximize revenue. The opposite, in fact, will happen.
Headline is misleading; they are not publishing the upgrade list (ie for all to see) at 30 days; they are showing individual BOOKED passengers their own position on the list. Not an entire list published until 2 days before.
In other words, Delta doesn't do it that way, so you don't approve. And United, your most hated airline, doing it just amplifies the disapproval.
Of course they’re doing it to (attempt to) increase revenue (and profits), why would that even be a question?
So is everything else they do! As they should!
really feels like UA is seizing the industry mantle within the US lately, moving aggressively to separate itself from the pack as a preferred airline for frequent travelers
It's getting increasingly difficult for Tim to justify how far behind Delta's app is compared to United's
This is definitely aimed at increasing revenue. (Unlike twisted Timmy’s logic)
It’ll lead to more rebookings at higher fare classes to increase odds of upgrades or more outright upgrade purchases.
While it's useful to know your position on the list. Don't be mistaken, this has NOTHING to do with transparency if they don't publish the names or initials of people on the list.
Geez thanks for that great insight Captain Obvious! Knowing your position 2-days out is pretty much meaningless too.
for some people, yes, they will book higher if they know they are too far down the list but no one knows UA's first class revenue management algorithm and whether they will monetize first class seats at any point in the process.
If anything, people who book first class at 30 days or beyond are not likely to be the people that pay the highest fares.
But, yes, for some people, there will be much less of an incentive to pay for a higher class of seat if you know that you fall fairly high on the list.
I'm flying solo (it only works for single flyers in beta) and it doesn't show in my app -- I have a trans-atlantic flight in 2 weeks and I applied for a miles+co-pay upgrade months ago, to both Premium Plus and Polaris. I don't have status with United. It just shows "Upgrade Requested" in the app like usual.
It is good information to have. I'm on a sort of high fare economy flight (M booking code) and considering taking the refund and rebooking on another carrier who has a sale on that same route in premium eco for the same price, but with not as good flight times. Knowing my situation upgrade-wise would help in that decision.
Lil Timmy just admit the Delta app is mediocre, upgrades suck, and United is superior in many ways. You don’t always have to be pleasing yourself for hours on end looking at DL 10-Qs.
app functionality comes down to what the app can do as part of self-service tools and also what information an airline chooses to release.
UA might or might not provide more self-service functionality but there is nothing ground-breaking about providing more information.
No other US airline - and very few in the world - provide public access to the standby list and seat map AFTER departure.
In fact, DL blocks the seat map after boarding starts. That isn't a question of whether DL could provide the information or not because they used to show the seat map and open seats until departure time.
They have chosen to not show open seats once boarding starts as a clear policy decision - and there are many examples of things like that where DL and UA differ. It has nothing to do with what one airline can do but what they choose to do.
and when UA can pay its people the same as DL people or better and post superior earnings, then we will be impressed. The chances of both happening are slim to nil.
and we'll not even get started about UA's dramatic share giveaway to DL in NYC.
aren't you glad you threw in your snide comment?
It's absolutely meaningful if there are fewer spots available than your position on the list. Especially if there are a lot fewer...
but you have no idea how many seats will sell and will be available for upgrade, esp. 30 days out.
The only people that would know are people in United's revenue mgmt dept. that have access to forecasts for each booking class and the cabin as a whole.
Your #15 on the list could be because they skip #2-14 when you're actually #2 on the list.
Now you're more encouraged to use PlusPoints.
Faking a name (like that racist retard impersonating a made up alias on the internet?) on the list is a bit harder to get away with.
Imagine Tom Stuker seeing himself #15 on the upgrade list.
TD I don’t have UA stock nor do I work for the company. I DGAF if they gave up a few NYC points to DL. YOU, OTOH, probably creamed your sheets seeing their 10-Q this week.
You were fired from DL (as everyone knows) and probably have low 5 figures max of their stock. Congrats to you. Keep up the truly amazing defense of the indefensible.
I’ve been in the travel blogosphere for 20 years and you truly are on the Mt Rushmore of pathetic individuals with a bizarre sociopathic constant defense of a CORPORATION, FFS. Great life you lead.
How so? there half as many people on upg d list onthe 175 the other day as there were seats. Would knowing how many seats there were 30 days out really make a difference.
they're trying to join delta in providing incremental reasons (for delta starting next medallion year, there's no other way to select choice benefits for plat/dia except in-app) to use app over desktop which always allows them to capture much more data about users on both ios and android. this can be used to provide more targeted offers (eg highest possible price you'd pay for a ua flight might be higher if you've been also shopping rolex lately) and also "anonymise" and bundle to sell ads from partners on this, which is part of kirby's strategy. enjoy suckers!
it is but not how you think. the real play is at your data when you MUST use mobile app, which always capture more data than desktop. Similar to dl demanding app for selecting choice benefits for plat/dia.