United announced today that they will bring back “expert mode†flight availability to users who opt-in, as well as introduce Complimentary Premier Upgrade eligibility and status displays online. United’s announcement from MilePoint: While it will be a “couple of weeks†before we see the changes, I’m very pleased with the announcement. And I’m impressed part…
fare buckets
Tag Archives for fare buckets.
How to Find United Airlines R-Upgrade Availability
While United Airlines did remove the online fare class availability display overnight, you can still search for “R-Upgrade†space, albeit via a bit lengthier process. It’s not ideal, but it is a way to do it yourself instead of having to call reservations. First, click on “Advanced Search†on the homepage. After filling in your…
United Airlines to Remove Fare Class Information Online
In an absolutely horrid and lack-of-transparency move, United Airlines is disabling the “expert mode†feature tonight on their website. It allows anyone to see inventory allocations in every fare class and “bucket†on a given United flight, such as: If this type of display is alphabet soup and meaningless to you, tonight’s change won’t be…
The new United Airlines upgrade & award fare buckets
Now that United Airlines converted to Shares and the old upgrade and award fare buckets no longer exist, I thought it might be helpful to summarize the new ones as shown in the below chart. The new alphabet soup has gotten a touch more complex depending on your elite status, so I’ve broken out the…
Airlines’ ability to steer traffic to lower demand flights through screen bias
I follow the Australian airline industry pretty closely and one of my favorite websites to read every day is Australian Business Traveller. This week a reader asked the question, “Why does (Qantas) not want to sell me SYD-ORD via LAX on the A380?†I plugged in some sample dates on the Australian version of Qantas.com.au…
The evolution of elite level qualification in airline frequent flyer programs
Qualifying for elite status with an airline requires meeting a certain threshold the carrier has published, whether it be point, mile or segment based. Those thresholds have been periodically raised, lowered and adjusted even to the point of birthing new tiers. Delta’s fairly recent addition of the Diamond level at 125,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles is…