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 of the reason United is bringing back complete fare class availability is due to the feedback (outrage) from its most loyal customers, including me.
Kudos, United. You’re doing the right thing for those of us who understand fare codes and availability.
Related posts:
How to Find United R-Upgrade Availability
Boy was there feed back :). Kudos indeed to United for listening and turning on their heels quickly.
While it’s good the United is reversing themselves, how about not shooting themselves in the foot in the future. I’m pretty sure that United knew how frequent travelers used this information. They could have anticipated the reaction – or polled some members – and been sensitive to the community and avoided the black eye by providing an alternative before pulling the inventory displays.
R and ON is back on ExpertFlyer, other award fares will be coming back soon. The only issue is that it doesn’t show how many seats are available, just if the number of seats you search for are available (search for 1 on a 737 with 9+ open, it’ll say 1, search for 4 on a plane with 3 open and it’ll show 0/not show up at all).
@Kris: Thanks for the info… I hadn’t been back to EF yet. And that’s probably the way it works because they’re probably still screen-scraping and the only way to see it now on United is to go through the same “request 3, see if they’re there” and rinse and repeat.