United Airlines Has Bad News for Fliers Who Like to Feel Fancy

A favorite United Airlines customer perk is being phased out.

Customer goodwill is the single most important thing for a business. If someone has a good experience with a service or product, they’re more likely to pick it the next time. It’s far more cost-effective to engender loyalty in an existing customer to turn them into a repeat buyer than it is to spend money trying to get a new one.

You can’t exactly buy customer loyalty, per se, but there are ways for a business to spend its money to ensure people think of them first. In terms of airlines, it’s worth it for airlines to spend the money to make sure people have a smooth comfortable journey, and some free perks never hurt.

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United Airlines  (UAL) - Get Free Report in 2015 quietly introduced the top secret “surprise and delight” upgrade policy that offered upgrades to elite flyers, and in some cases would even offer bumps to United Global First Class for some loyal customers on some flights. 

But starting in August, the “surprise and delight” upgrade program will be phased out for the Boeing 767-300ERs and 767-400ERs, which will no longer offer free, and unexpected, upgrades to premium economy seats. 

After August, if you want an upgrade you’ll have to pay for it, either with cash, miles or PlusPoints, United's upgrade currency.

Usually, when a perk is phased out, it's because the company is trying to save money. United, like all other airlines, is busy trying to hire more pilots and flight attendants to replace the people who retired during the pandemic, and it’s also dealing with rising jet fuel prices, so this could also signal a shift in resource allocations. 

But as pointed out by The Points Guy, United has “been busy retrofitting its Boeing 767s with the addition of a Premium Plus cabin.” It’s easy to surmise that if United is investing heavily in these cabins, it doesn’t want to give them away just yet. 

The retrofit process is scheduled to be completed in August.