UAL HUA.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 

In an apparent attempt to ensure that the remaining frequent fliers, those of us who have flown regularly though all the stupid terrorist hoopla, who have tolerated Canadian Proctology, who have stuck with United through delays and lost luggage, to ensure that even we dedicated fliers finally give up, United has started charging even their most frequent fliers for upgrades.

Even global services fliers will be charged $50 to upgrade a segment whether the upgrade is purchased with an “upgrade certificate” or with 15,000 miles (or whatever the amount is). The Very Appreciated Customer is given the illustrated friendly notice as a special finger in the eye thank-you for loyalty.

Either United really does want to keep frequent fliers off their planes or they let complete incompetents come up with their new money scavenging rules. I tend to think the latter, given the way the bag charge has resulted, predictably, in delays and violence on planes as harried passengers fight over overhead space.

If this charge came about through pure incompetence rather than malice, the company has failed to consider the impact of the charge on customers. For example: I fly 4-6 times a week and upgrade most of my flights. This might not seem much of a hardship, but last year I flew about 300,000 miles and at 600 miles an hour that’s 500 hours in planes or 10 hours a week not including waiting on the ground. It is a challenge to work in the confines of coach and it is certainly uncomfortable. If I couldn’t upgrade, I just wouldn’t be willing to fly so much.

That mileage was accumulated on about 200 segments and represented about $100,000 in revenue for UAL. One might reasonably argue that at an average price of $500 per segment a charge of $50 additional, or 10%, isn’t an intolerable penalty. Certainly that is true. It would have made no difference to me to expense $110,000 or $100,000. But that’s not the way this charge works, and UAL apparently failed to even begin to think this through. Because the charge is assessed after the flight is completed I can’t practically expense it. Like most frequent travelers, my time in the air is almost purely work-related. If I get a vacation, what I want to do most is stay at home, not get on a plane. United’s incomprehensibly stupid decision attempts to tax me, personally, $10,000 a year for my loyalty.

Over more than 15 years of far too much air travel, about 1.8 million miles, I have fought many times to book my own flights and I have stuck with United every time. I’ve stuck my neck out to justify what is frequently not the lowest fare because UAL has generally compensated my loyalty with a business-justifiable commitment to getting me where I need to go regardless of weather and other setbacks. But I simply can’t give united $10,000 out of my own pocket, much as I like the employees I have come to know.

I’m hoping UAL fixes this. As life goals go it may not be much, but I was looking forward to 2,000,000 miles.

Just as a note: I’ll be looking into other FF plans (American, Delta) to see if there’s a better deal. I’ll post what I find. My understanding is that airlines are generally willing to transfer the status of frequent fliers for the first year to capture the business.

If UAL needs to do this and wants to keep my business, they could assess a $50 charge at booking so I can expense it. I’d have no problem with adding 10% to my ticket fare to make whatever “lowest available fare” upgradable at no further charge; even if the charge is non-refundable – as long as it is expensible. Similarly, I’d be happy to add $15 to my ticket purchase price (that I can expense) for internet service whereas I would generally not pay the fee on a per-flight basis.

Think, United, think. I have Premiere Exec for life already and I’m so close to RCC for life, don’t blow it now.

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Posted at 23:55:41 GMT-0700

Category: PlanesRelated LinksTravel

A week of tweets: 2010-01-10

Sunday, January 10, 2010 
  • Leaving JFK no prob. Some national guard guys around, a few people selected for secondary at the gate, otherwise normal. #
  • Hotel was full of noisy Texans. I mean herds of them. Some football game… #
  • How to program the bus display. #
  • The FTC is concerned that consumers don’t understand the risks of cloud computing http://is.gd/5Qdnr Problem is that pros don’t either. #
  • PS flight with @phragments. Failed attempt to see avatar in DC last night. Will see tomorrow at Metreon at 12:15, only night@home/fortnight #
  • At avatar, in 3d imax with good michael and @phragments. #

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Posted at 02:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter

Oh Hertz!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 

Another town car? I very much appreciate the upgrade, but my age is in my profile and although I’m getting old, this sort of thing is still off by at least 3 decades.

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Posted at 10:16:32 GMT-0700

Category: NegativephotoRental carsReviews

A week of tweets: 2010-01-03

Sunday, January 3, 2010 
  • At 26c3 in Berlin. Hai Jake. #
  • #26c3 ger lunar xprize attempt. http://bit.ly/7ISpOO apollo engineer: cdc 6000 was fast by any measure, 60 bit! Go Seymour! And we liked it! #
  • #26c3 #trabi #museum! #cool #
  • #nom #nom #currywurst unter den tvtower #
  • 26c3 “fuzzing phones” send an sms to m$ mobile HTC touch (at least) with “%n”: goodnight phone. Yay m$, ping of death lives! #
  • Perhaps not the best day for lunch at the top of the tv tower #
  • An intimate day at the top of the tv tower. Good lunch though. Perhaps tomorrow for the bar after 26c3? #
  • At 26c3 “who has an iPhone?” <1% raise hands. “Internal battery” “Expensive doorstop.” SMS fuzzing: p0wn ConnectManager, p0wn root. #
  • Amusing myself running easyjack on my old moto at 26c3. “Hey you 31337 Haxorz!” One open connect in cryptography & virology talk so far. #
  • Snowy day in berlin at 26c3 #
  • Snow on the tv(tower) #
  • 26c3 closing laser show! #
  • Maxwell: an excellent dining experience in berlin. #
  • Maxwell is about here. #
  • C-baser fun be havin’ #
  • “Ass tweet” when you put your smart phone in your pocket with the twitter client open and “ass dial” the ladt person who tweeted. #
  • TXL (in snow) to ZRH to IAD today with @phragments & @bellastar11. Had fun at 26c3, even though it seemed like SF auf Deutsch. Noisebridge.. #
  • New year’s flight crazyness. TXL-ZRH flight late, no ZRH-IAD-BOS, TXL-ZRH-YUL… #
  • What to do in montreal for new year’s? #
  • Lovely ney dinner at Barroco in montral #
  • Leaving YUL. will try to avoid travel to Canada until canadian homeland security rediscovers reason. No carry-on. Check b4 fly. #
  • Flying from Canada to US: – no carry on, takes forever even in empty airport. + free procotology exams for everyone! #
  • Made it 2 boston. Hopefully tsa doesnt steal the laptops http://bit.ly/7O3E1i or smash them like guitars. http://s7y.us/1k1m #
  • GE 10W LED bulb: 320 lumens for $44.99 20,000 hours. GE 10W CCFL: 520 lumens for $6.99 8,000 hours. CCFL FTW. #
  • Nom! Miracle of Science with @lextopia, @phragments, & @bellastar11. B2. #
  • Ice cream @tosci with @phragments, @lextopia, @bellastar11. Nom Nom. #

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Posted at 01:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter