So once upon a time, United had frequent flier awards. If you flew X miles with them, you could trade in those miles for flights, but, more important, as you reached various tiers, you got access to various privileges — early seating, better seats, access to the spiffy flight lounge, etc.
But times change, and now it’s not just enough to offer these as rewards for regular customers — to turn a profit (or less of a loss), the “honors” need to be for sale, too.
So I’ve mentioned before how I lost my Premier status because I didn’t fly enough miles last year. I could have, for an extortionate (four figure, as I recall) price have bought the miles to do so — sort of like Indulgences, I guess (literal indulgences, as far as that goes), but I simply could not justify the cost.
Now it turns out that those “Economy Plus” seats — the ones that give you an extra five inches of leg room — well, originally they were sort of, “see what nice things we’re doing for you?”
Then it became “and if you’re a premier or higher member, you can get an upgrade.”
Now it’s “you can also just pay money to get access to them, otherwise fuggedaboudit.”
But, wait, there’s more. Yeah, for $350 you can buy access to Economy Plus seating (which, honestly, is quite likely worth it). But for $750 you can get that access to the Red Carpet Room. Or for $800 you can get Economy Plus access plus reduce the miles you need to fly in order to get Premier membership (again, for me).
Get it? You’re paying extra money, not to actually get anything, but to make it easier for you to get something (by paying more).
*sigh*
The airlines and the TSA seem to be racing to see who can make air travel more intolerable first. And that way, we’ll all win, right?
For the record, it appears I actually did do this last year — based on the reminder that I need to pony over $350 for this year, too. (Not that I trust United to have the records correct, or that they aren’t just fishing for more money.) Given that my travel is way down, screw it.