To:
Mr. Glenn Tilton, Chairman, President, CEO, United Airlines
SEE RELATED:
Mr. Graham Atkinson, President, Mileage Plus
Copy to:
Mr. Jaan Albrecht, CEO, Star Alliance
Dear Mr. Tilton and Mr. Atkinson,
As loyal members of United’s Mileage Plus program, we would like to thank you for recently making Star Alliance awards more accessible to United passengers. The Star Alliance is a driving force behind frequent flyers’ loyalty to United, enabling passengers to redeem miles on premier airlines to virtually every corner of the world.
United seems to be the only Star Alliance member to have blocked common partner award inventory. In Nicholas Kralev’s weekly Washington Times column on September 29, 2008, he quoted United spokesman Jeff Kovick as saying, “We manage award availability on our Star Alliance partners just as we do with United’s own saver awards.”
We have noticed that as of October 16, United has significantly reduced (if not almost eliminated) Star Alliance award blocking, greatly enhancing both the value of the Mileage Plus program as well as the integrity of the Star Alliance as a whole. As a result, we would like to encourage United to continue to make partner award seats more accessible.
In the aforementioned article, Mr. Kovick is also quoted as saying, “It is an ongoing balance of ensuring we meet our customers’ interest in award travel on partner carriers with United’s need to generate revenue on our own flights.”
We would understand this argument if United only blocked routes that it served. However, taking into account that United blocks a considerable amount of inventory on routes that it does not serve, such as intra-Europe and certain intra-Asia flights, we have difficulty following Mr. Kovick’s argument. Blocking award space on Star Alliance carriers would encourage passengers to travel on other carriers or on available award inventory on less direct routings (as discussed below), not change passengers’ ultimate destination to complement United’s routes.
By blocking Star Alliance award availability on direct routings to desired destinations, passengers end up on multi-segment trips that presumably cost United more. Mr. Kovick’s quote above suggests the lack of award space encourages more travelers to book revenue tickets, but frequently passengers simply end up on less direct routings.
While we are the voice of the passenger, Star Alliance partners should also encourage United to not block award inventory. Blocking inventory has an adverse effect on the revenue stream from United to other Star Alliance carriers, and dilutes the brand of the world’s first and largest alliance.
In conclusion, we commend you for recently making partner awards more accessible, and encourage you to continue to offer more complete inventory. Ultimately, the Star Alliance, United Airlines and the United customer would emerge as a more loyal, prestigious and united force.
Signed,
UNITED CUSTOMERS
Glenys Aitken
H.M. Austin
Lawson Bader
Michael Baines
Richard S. Boltizar
Mike Brundidge
Charles Cabral
Louis Carufel
John Chang
Greg Char
David E. Chesebro
Cheng-Wu Chu
Steve Cinocco
Matthew J. Clint
Zachary Codd
Alex Cohen
Noah Cole
Brownell Combs
Kristopher Courter
Rebecca Dandois
Volker Eckhoff
David Fisher
Craig Foo
Gene Fowler
Stacey Gallanis
Peter Gallanis
Matt Goldstein
Megan Gong
Kevin Gross
Craig Gruber
Chris Hanna
Kenneth Hawkins
Andrew Ho
Matt Holdrege
Bernard Scott Holloway Jr.
Roger Hooson
Charles Hu
William Huang
Len H. Jui
Asya Kamsky
Richard A. Karp
Alan Kennan
Asif Khan
Ashish Khera
Reginald King
Ryan W. Kingsbury
James B. Kraus
Samir Kumar
Bert Kurtin
Deborah Kurtin
Gail Lang
Joseph Lanza
Patrick Lee
Rodney Leong
Michael Loo
David Louie
Mark Lyons
Patricia Mahoric
Ray Maker
David Mastrovich
John Maze
Randal Newton
Tim Nowfel
Edward T. Nugent
Jon O’Keefe
Kent Olcer
Sev Onyshkevych
John Paasonen
Robert Pearse
Randy Petersen
Sebastian Poggel
Lori Quarnstrom
Dimitri Ramon
Gray Roberge
Werner de Rosario
Indrayana Rustandi
Hiro Sato
Laura Schaefer
Bradley Schaffer
Joseph Shipley
Barbara Schlain
Ben Schlappig
Bob Smiejek
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