On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score • Hacker News Board

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#411

Post by lozaning » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 7:38 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #359

lozaning wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any yet I've somehow been bombarded all week with spam sms from only the party who's candidates I do not intend to vote for. Anyone that could tie the website I visit to my phone number should be able to guess that easily enough.

Why would a party you do intend to vote for need to bombard you with advertising? Surely you're only going to get deluged with advertising of you're known not to vote for that party. Or is reverse psychology! Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line ...

It's so strange to me, because they're not trying to change my mind or present their side. The assumption in the texts is that Im definitely on their side and just needed to be reminded 6 times a day where my polling place is and when the election is.

It shouldnt take a cambridge analytica person to tell you that people who have bought Friend of the Pod shirts likely aren't conservative voters. They clearly need more of my data lol.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#412

Post by presto8 » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 7:58 PM UTC

kenneth wrote: post #147

technofiend wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm pretty convinced this all boils down to a sort of low-grade white collar corruption: people who travel a lot for business sometimes can get away with favoring one airline over another, I suppose it depends on the business but at my Fortune 50 we're required to use "lowest logical airfare". You can force a choice of Southwest over United by choosing one airport over another, and there's enough wiggle room to let…

Not necessarily. Two round trip in economy to Asia in a year will get you bottom tier status. Quarterly trips in business (not uncommon if you work at some big company) would get you top-tier status.

Two RT trips to Asia might barely meet the minimum tier for miles, but most (all?) airlines now have a minimum in dollars spent, as well. For example, for the first status level, United requires 25,000 miles and $3000 spent with United (this means code-share partner airline flights don't count).

One year, I flew RT SFO-Singapore (16,000 miles RT) and SFO-Tel-Aviv (10,200 miles RT). Due to getting a really good deal on economy tickets, those two tickets were less than $3,000 total and thus I didn't get even the most basic status level.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#413

Post by kenneth » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 8:33 PM UTC

presto8 wrote: post #412

kenneth wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. Two round trip in economy to Asia in a year will get you bottom tier status. Quarterly trips in business (not uncommon if you work at some big company) would get you top-tier status.

Two RT trips to Asia might barely meet the minimum tier for miles, but most (all?) airlines now have a minimum in dollars spent, as well. For example, for the first status level, United requires 25,000 miles and $3000 spent with United (this means code-share partner airline flights don't count). One year, I flew RT SFO-Singapore (16,000 miles RT) and SFO-Tel-Aviv (10,200 miles RT). Due to getting a really good deal o…

Not all airlines have spend requirements. (Alaska doesn't, and neither do most foreign programs). You can waive United spend requirement by using their credit card, too. Also, Star Alliance partner flights do earn PQDs on United as long as you fly on a United ticket (# starting in 016).

I have quite a few friends who fly primarily United but credit flights to other partner airlines where the requirements aren't as high. Aegean used to be a very popular way to easily get Star Alliance Gold status, and you were able to earn it purely by flying United.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#414

Post by kenneth » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 8:37 PM UTC

jki275 wrote: post #394

kenneth wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. Two round trip in economy to Asia in a year will get you bottom tier status. Quarterly trips in business (not uncommon if you work at some big company) would get you top-tier status.

On what airline? 2 Asia trips won't even meet the minimum number of flights, let alone qualify you for any status. 4 trips on Star Alliance from the US to Asia might get you the lowest status, which does essentially nothing for you. You probably would need another 8 trips to make it to Gold which is where it actually means something.

Your math is way off. Did you check the distance on a map? SFO-HKG 2x will earn you 27k miles [1].

Most programs have their status levels at 25k miles for lowest and 100k for highest. So, ignoring spend, 2 round-trips to HKG will earn you Silver status on United.

4 trips in business class (double miles) will earn you 110k miles, enough for 1K status.

[1]: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SFO-HKG-SFO;SFO-HKG-SFO

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#415

Post by kenneth » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 8:48 PM UTC

Fomite wrote: post #308

wlll wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I signed up for the BA frequent flyer program and "cognitive load" really didn't ring true for me. Basically, I add my frequent flier number to the booking form online and that's it. When I hit Bronze (it's a couple of long flights or so) I don't need to do anything, I just get to skip the queue at checkin and (airport depending) security. There's no sales, no emails, no upsell, my (travelling) life is just better af…

It's especially not cognitive-load building if you live at a hub (or a place with only one carrier). Live in Pullman, WA? You're flying Alaska anyway. Salt Lake City, UT? Get yourself a Delta number. The tricky places are where there are lots of competing carriers. San Francisco with it's...pseudo-hubness for a number of airlines, Washington DC, etc.

SF is definitely a hub with about 50% market share to United. It's also a hub for the smaller Alaska (mostly via their acquisition of SFO-based Virgin America).

As a SFO-based frequent flyer, if you fly to numerous destination (instead of doing the same commute each trip), your choices are likely: fly United or take an extra connection.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#416

Post by kenneth » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 8:52 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #338

wlll wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I signed up for the BA frequent flyer program and "cognitive load" really didn't ring true for me. Basically, I add my frequent flier number to the booking form online and that's it. When I hit Bronze (it's a couple of long flights or so) I don't need to do anything, I just get to skip the queue at checkin and (airport depending) security. There's no sales, no emails, no upsell, my (travelling) life is just better af…

Try to actually use your points on a flight or upgrade and you'll see problems - it can be extremely difficult to find availability, even if you are prepared to book a year in advance, and the BA tools for searching are buggy as hell.

Avios is extremely useful for getting cheap domestic flights last minute. SFO-LAX day of departure starts at $180, but costs 7,500 Avios only. PUS-KIX or HKG-TPE cost a measly 4,500 Avios. They can be a real life-saver.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#417

Post by Brockenstein » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 8:56 PM UTC

kenneth wrote: post #57

The most obvious example of this in daily life is through airlines, where the difference is pretty transparent and you get night-and-day better service by being a loyal customer. With top status with AA and UA (EXP and 1K), you connected to U.S.-based very senior phone agents right away, who always make sure to take care of any issue that arises. 50min delay on your AA flight? No problem, sir, we are rebooking you on…

Not to mention but high status flyers make up like 80% of the airline's revenue.

Everyone else who flies once in a while, once every couple of years, who's trying to get the cheapest economy class ticket possible really doesn't amount to much individually. And it doesn't matter if you get mad and are never flying X airline again because you really don't make the airline enough money to worry about you. And someone else is never flying Y airline again and they'll fly X airline instead.

When I worked for an airline I heard every combination of I'm not flying A Airline for B reason you can think of. They're all the same. Just luck of the draw who you have a crummy experience with.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#418

Post by kenneth » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:05 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #292

kenneth wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Global Services is insane. Qualification requirements are insane, too. It's invite-only, based on unpublished criteria. It's speculated that when based at a hub airport like SFO, it takes about $75k in annual spend on full-fare United first of business tickets. There are a few other ways to qualify: fly 4 million miles with United, marry a million-miler who has GS, pre-pay $250k towards airfare for your company, or $…

> pre-pay $250k towards airfare for your company, or $50k personally I’ve never heard of the prepayment for GS option, and those numbers seem low. Do you have a source for that?

Yes, it's called the PassPlus program [1]. I don't believe United publishes the status perks online, but you can see the full terms on the FlyerTalk thread wiki [2].

    Investment Levels
    
    Individual Plans
    Minimum $25,000 - Complimentary Premier Gold
    $35,000 - Complimentary Premier Platinum
    $45,000 - Complimentary Premier 1K
    $50,000 - Complimentary Global Services
    
    Corporate Plans
    Minimum $50,000 - 1x Premier Gold, 1x Premier Silver, 4x United Club Annual Memberships
    $100,000 - 1x Premier Platinum, 2x Premier Gold, 3x United Club Annual Memberships
    $300,000 - 1x Premier 1K, 1x Premier Platinum, 3 Premier Gold, 6x United Club Annual Memberships

(Looks like they've changed the corporate options since last I looked at it. I am sure that there is still a level of corporate spend that comes with GS memberships but it may more closer to $500k than $250k.)

[1]: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/products/business/passp...

[2]: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/...

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#419

Post by kenneth » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:10 PM UTC

rconti wrote: post #386

kenneth wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price differences are not as stark as you say. Business class in particular has gotten quite cheap these days. In the past few months, I flew round-trip California to Beijing 3 times for $1,900 in business class. That's affordable to many people, and quite reasonable. There are a lot of perks even when you don't get an upgrade. The intangibles (being taken care of when issues arise — I've received amazing service…

Can you get a great fare? Absolutely; I flew business on miles from SFO to VIE for 127,500, roundtrip, all in. Is it common? Absolutely not. I check business fares every time I book a ticket and it's virtually always 5x for international. I've seen it edge down towards 3x on airlines that don't have Premium Economy, but what gets me is that Premium Economy is never less than DOUBLE what economy is. Absolutely insane.…

https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=SAN.PEK.2018-11-15*PEK.S...

Take your pick of dates on the calendar: $1,900 to $2,200 is available pretty much any days.

Sure, it takes a bit of knowledge and research to find the good deals, but there's almost always a way to cross an ocean round-trip at around $2k.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#420

Post by thr0w__4w4y » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 10:50 PM UTC

kenneth wrote: post #153

CrackpotGonzo wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was lucky enough to fly Global Services on United through my old boss' account at my old company. Flew internationally a couple of times and the level of attention was insane. Get to airport and they walk you to the lounge, past security, and then come grab you when you're ready to pre-board (before everyone including military). My connecting flight was delayed by 20 minutes, cutting down my connection time to 50 m…

Global Services is insane. Qualification requirements are insane, too. It's invite-only, based on unpublished criteria. It's speculated that when based at a hub airport like SFO, it takes about $75k in annual spend on full-fare United first of business tickets. There are a few other ways to qualify: fly 4 million miles with United, marry a million-miler who has GS, pre-pay $250k towards airfare for your company, or $…

1K here (12th year now). Fly about 200K miles / year, about $20K / yr expenditure. ENgineering consultant FWIW.

One time I was upgraded to First Class (domestic, US) and I sat next to the guy (at that time, literally a guy, a man) who essentially runs/administers the GS program.

He was extremely friendly, and as the drinks & flight continued, I pulled a /small/ amount of info from him about GS.

BASICALLY, it comes down to profit. Every year the bar changes, but if you are something like the 0.1% most profitable customer, you are in GS. Every year the amount varies, but typically you need to buy $50K - $75K of high-profit airfare (read: full class airfare, usually highest class of service, often international)

If you saw me (small business owner, consultant) you'd think I'm either a schlub or an athlete, but not a "CEO type". I am CEO of a one-person company. I do very well, but I don't work for Google / Bain / McKinsey / etc. So I book inexpensive airfares (it's my company, my money) and I accept that there are employees who just travel a lot and get treated like royalty.

I would love to have others jump in and tell me this next statement is flat-out wrong, but IMO the GS folks aren't entrepreneurs and small business owners, they work for BigCo and are treated like royalty. Not jealous at all, from my informal survey the divorce rate of GS is way higher than average. Also many GS folks on the "fringe" are stressed out b/c once they've had it, they don't know exactly what they did to get it, and what it will take next year.

I sleep well at night.