United Learns That Some People Don't Want Free Upgrades

(MoneyWatch)  Many airlines in the US offer free domestic upgrades for their elite frequent fliers. United and American have long been the holdouts in this trend, but last week United buckled and announced that the free upgrades would start next year. You would think that this would make their elite frequent fliers happy, right? Nope. While they're happy to tout the benefits, they're trying to hide the fine print in their PR efforts. As you can imagine, many are angry about it. This is a lot more complicated than it appears.

Here's how the system works right now. If you're an elite frequent flier, there are 3 upgrade instruments you can use.

• 500 Mile certs - For every 10,000 qualifying miles an elite member earns, he gets 4 of these certs. Each one is good for 500 miles, so if you're traveling 1,500 miles, you'll need three. Elites can also buy these for $200 for a pack of four.
• Regional Upgrade (CR1) - For every 10,000 qualifying miles, only the top elite members (1K) get 2 of these certs per year. These are good for an upgrade anywhere in North America.
• Systemwide Upgrade (SWU) - These are the coveted ones. SWUs are good for an upgrade anywhere in the world. 1K members earn six per year, and two more for every 50,000 miles over 100,000. They can be used on Lufthansa as well, and they're transferable.

Seems incredibly complicated, right? Well it is, but those in the program seem to enjoy the complexity. Now, this will be mostly wiped out. The 500 milers and the CR1s will be going away and every elite member gets on the upgrade list. The SWU is still around for international travel, so why aren't people happy? Well you have to look below the PR here.

The biggest issue is the timing of upgrades. With CR1s, you could upgrade at the time of booking if an upgrade seat was available. Now, that's not possible anymore. You'll have to wait until the window opens for upgrades before departure. That extra piece of mind was big for United fliers who didn't want to play the waiting game. Elites also can no longer give upgrades to other people who aren't traveling with them.

In addition, this further devalues the benefits for the lower level elites, the Premier members. In the past, the top tier elites would have to decide whether to use a certificate or not for an upgrade, and they wouldn't always do so. It was always difficult for Premier members to get an upgrade, but at least they had a shot on shorter haul flights since top tier elites would decide it wasn't worth spending the cert. Now that goes away since every elite gets on the standby list.

The Premier member benefits have been eroded multiple times lately. In fact, you can just buy Premier status for your travel if you want now.

I understand the idea here. Continental is joining Star Alliance in about a week, so it sounds like United has decided to better align its program with that of Continental. Fine, but there are still plenty of unhappy campers around.