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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

United Airlines Changes MileagePlus Program, Screws Customers

Above, the United Dreamliner I flew to Japan in last February. Photo by Armand Vaquer.


Last February, I joined United Airlines' MileagePlus frequent flier program. This was before I got on board the Dreamliner to Japan and found that their meals weren't anywhere as good as they were 14 years before.

To say that I was greatly disappointed with United Airlines would be an understatement. They were my favorite U.S. airline.

Since then, during Facebook discussions with friends on airline quality, the general consensus was that the Asian airline companies (Singapore Air, ANA, Korean Air, Japan Air, etc.) are a lot more service and customer-oriented than U.S. carriers.

United Airlines is proving again that U.S. carriers would rather treat their customers like cattle. They have announced that they are changing their MileagePlus frequent flier program. Basically, the customer is getting screwed again.

One of my Facebook friends, Andrew Bender, wrote an article on this change for Forbes.com.

He begins with:
You read it here first. Back in February, I predicted that United Airlines would follow its competitor Delta and change its MileagePlus frequent flier program to one far less advantageous to frequent fliers. This morning, that came to pass. 
Under new MileagePlus rules, which take effect March 1, 2015, passengers will accrue significantly fewer points on most flights than they currently do. That’s because awards will be based on ticket price instead of mileage flown.
He then does some numbers-crunching to show how United is sticking it to the customer. Bender is a little more charitable, he says the customer is getting "hosed."

To read the full article, go here.

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