Expert Mode Update

Hi Everyone,

I want to give you an update on the changes to our united.com Expert Mode feature. By now, most of you know why we made the change we did: Displaying this level of information to all customers was causing significant confusion and questions.

We remain committed to providing information that makes your travel planning experience better, but there is a difference between a feature like Expert Mode -- which is understood by a select set of customers, and new features we’re developing like upgrade status visibility -- which is more easily understood by all customers. I’m happy to say that, as a direct result of your feedback, we have worked hard to accelerate a couple solutions that accomplish this goal.

Within the next two weeks we will:

• Introduce improved upgrade status visibility for all customers. As many of you have seen in our preview site, this feature makes it easier for customers to review their upgrade status on flights for which they have waitlisted for an upgrade, as well as check Complimentary Premier Upgrade eligibility and status. This feature is the direct result of your feedback and will be available to all customers when viewing their reservation on united.com
  
  
• Re-launch of Expert Mode as an opt-in feature. We will re-introduce the ability to view fare-class level information (a.k.a. Expert Mode) to customers who choose this setting in their online MileagePlus profile. This will enable the same level of fare class detail previously displayed to all customers. I’ll post the details about how exactly to configure this setting once it launches

Like you, we wish we could have made these changes concurrently. That said, we appreciate your patience over the next couple of weeks while we roll these out. Thank you as always for your feedback.

Shannon Kelly
Director, Customer Insights
United Airlines

Thanks for the update and a little hope back Shannon

Thanks for listening, Shannon.

Thanks for the update, Shannon.

Very welcome news, Shannon. Thanks for keeping us updated!

Yay Can't wait for it to return.

Good news and looking forward to the update!

They heard us loudly and clearly, and because they value what we say, they have come up with just the right solution: The Expert Mode will be an optional feature, to opt in at one's own peril

Happy days are here again!

Shannon, THANK YOU! This really is great news, as I've really missed having that functionality over the past week. I'm glad UA came around on this.

Praises be to the d.r.S.L.!!!

It is a bit disheartening, though, that the airline decided to expend resources in tweaking the displays in the first place when the single most bread-and-butter issue for the airline -- operational reliability -- is still far off the mark.

I suspect the junior IT staffer who spent a few minutes commenting out a couple of lines of code probably wouldn't be able to contribute much to improve the operational reliability of UA.

Thanks Shannon. Very much appreciate your continued work on this (and for persevering through all the negativity directed at you).

Probably not, but said folks can work to improve United's customer response (from an IT standpoint) to operational issues.

And, to be sure, I'm not intending to rain on what's definitely good news for us, but it's interesting just the same to observe how companies decide what to tinker with in the face of large competing demands for time and resources.

I'm pleased this is coming back. Not exactly sure massive kudos are in order for restoring something that shouldn't have been taken away in the first place, however.

Thanks for being responsive!

Good News Everyone!

Good to hear.

I'm glad this is back too, but I'm still wondering what the emergency was in removing it before the solution was in place. If from an IT perspective, they couldn't implement the new mode concurrently, they could have issued a statement similar to what Shannon said above, with a date on which the new mode would be available. Of course that would assume that UA has the ability to follow through on their deliverables.

Thanks for the update and restoring the function

Wish United would consider the impact on customers before making these changes, and be more sensitive to the reception

Thanks very much for the slow rollout.

I look forward to my chances of getting upgraded more now that VERY IMPORTANT ELITES for whom THIS WAS THE LAST STRAW, have planned to TAKE THEIR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE, which was of course THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN PAID J, and were sure that $MI$EK JUST HATES THE OVER-PRIVILEGED ELITES because the new United is full of CUSTOMER-UNFRIENDLY POLICIES.

So thanks for letting the those types blow their stacks. That was entertaining.

In conclusion, "THIS IS JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE HOUSTON MENTALITY AT CODBAUA. BLARGH!"

Thank you for the update Shannon! Looking forward to the new changes being rolled out.

Are you assuming that the now announced solution was what they had originally in mind when they removed it? If that was the case, the original announcement would/should/could have been a quite different one.

It's a really good question- my original post implies that, but truth is that I don't know. The more cynical (realistic?) side of me says that they didn't understand or care about the hornets' nest that they kicked up, and had to find a solution tout-suite. Given the ambiguity of the first announcement, that has a pretty high plausibility factor. Being more charitable, which is hard given the last several months, they did have something in mind.

I think we still don't even know what the one change they said was implemented last week is. Unless it's the on-time arrival link, which is completely unrelated to the topic.

If they were in fact planning to make "Expert Mode" a true opt-in mode from the outset, they deserve an F for communications. I think that's not the case, though. They have heard us loud and clear, and I am glad that they actually did listen and accept the suggestion made by many to make it the opt-in feature.

Thanks for listening! Great work, Shannon and team.