I do not have a news article about this, but I was included in the mistake, and have been following it on Flyertalk. I thought some people who are following the merger might be interested.

Yesterday, I logged into my account, and to my surprise I was listed as a Premier 1K member on MileagePlus. I flew 25,200 miles last year, so this was obviously a mistake, though some people who were just short of making 1K seemed to think it was a gift. Shannon, from United, confirmed that everyone who earned miles yesterday or the evening before was accidently marked as 1K, and it has since been corrected, but people were able to get free Econ + seats, better reward availability and I imagine upgrade standby lists were flooded yesterday evening.

Did anyone fly United yesterday and witness any of the mayhem?

A few posts on FlyerTalk do NOT equal mayhem. And unlike the US Airways mistake in 2007, this one was actually corrected quickly. #KeepCalmAndCarryOn

Bummer- I wish I'd known, as I would have booked some Trans-Atl Biz seats in a heartbeat!!!

I had an extra 17,000 United miles the last few days, but no extra status. Reverted today.

Quoting avek00 (Reply 1): A few posts on FlyerTalk do NOT equal mayhem.

I meant mayhem at the gate when the upgrade standby list was out of order. One GS member with 189k miles flown in 2012, would normally be first, maybe second on the list found himself 27th, but his flight was today, so the situation was sorted out before flew.

My statement was wayyyyyyyy off too. However, sadly, it's been corrected.

My wife wants to know who is the idiot who had to blabber about it instead of keeping his mouth shut and not letting United in on their mistake...

        

That is the danger of Flyertalk...United is Watching...always!   

I'm glad they caught it. The elite pool is already too big as it is. Don't need silvers trumping 1Ks now.

I doubt there was chaos and mayhem at the gates. Just some folks who didn't get an upgrade.

I miss the title of Presidential Platinum from Continental Airlines, once moved to United, became 1K, and I wonder if it meant 1000 something? Ok, once I was ok with the new 1K status, then I've found out theybinvented a new ceiling,mit was Global Services, so 1K is behind the status line of a higher elite status. It never ends 

Quoting avek00 (Reply 1): And unlike the US Airways mistake in 2007, this one was actually corrected quickly.

That explains a lot.

I've flown USAirways codeshares twice in the last three weeks -- (1) DCA-SAN in F class for 12,500 miles and (2) SAN-PHX-YYC in F class for 12,500 miles. Mileage-Plus suddenly woke up and deducted the additional 50,000 miles.   

Flyertalk says so eh? I blame SHARES  

Quoting blueflyer (Reply 6): My wife wants to know who is the idiot who had to blabber about it instead of keeping his mouth shut and not letting United in on their mistake..

The person who does not feel comfortable taking something they did not earn. It's called honesty. Some of us still practice it.

Quoting cruiseshipcrew (Reply 8): I'm glad they caught it. The elite pool is already too big as it is. Don't need silvers trumping 1Ks now.

Ditto... I am normally the next one in line after F checks in full anyways so probably wouldn't have mattered  

Quoting rising (Reply 13): The person who does not feel comfortable taking something they did not earn. It's called honesty. Some of us still practice it.

It was obviously said in jest... Gee, chill out!

Quoting Norcal773 (Reply 14):

Was it? How many people do you think, if this issue was not resolved by UAL, would have attempted to book advantageous tickets/upgrade based on their "new" status?

We've seen this happen before on many occasions where people book flights based on a computer clitch, only to come back and demand the airline honor it after the issue is resolved, no matter if the price/upgrade defied common sense.

It's not a personal comment directed toward you or any poster in this thread; it's a broad statement about consumers today. Some people are always looking for something for free, no matter if it is right or wrong. It's unfortunate. That's why these stories make the news.

Quoting bobloblaw (Reply 9): I doubt there was chaos and mayhem at the gates. Just some folks who didn't get an upgrade.

There is always chaos and mayhem at the United gates.....but not because of this issue.   

It is funny you mention that. I went from my 49k miles to 228,000 miles in a literally the time it takes to load the app, look at the standby list and then back to home page/button. Then it reset. I asked some people at work and its a part of the integration of behind the scene updates/upgrades. SO yes, it may be a slight annoyance, but like menioned above, certainly NO US AIR in 2007.

What I cannot stand, is how long that upgrade list is. F almost always goes full with revenue purchases, let alone when you try to upgrade and a typical SAN-ORD flight will have 49 upgrades for an A319 with one open seat. If the coveted F class seat is so amazing, please, just pay the extra few bucks and buy it and get the perks that way.

Quoting blueflyer (Reply 6): My wife wants to know who is the idiot who had to blabber about it instead of keeping his mouth shut and not letting United in on their mistake...

Your wife dishonest?

Quoting rising (Reply 13): The person who does not feel comfortable taking something they did not earn. It's called honesty. Some of us still practice it.

I agree, to take advantage of a mistake like that though would not happen when the mistake is found out and corrected.

Quoting 777ord (Reply 17): What I cannot stand, is how long that upgrade list is. F almost always goes full with revenue purchases, let alone when you try to upgrade and a typical SAN-ORD flight will have 49 upgrades for an A319 with one open seat. If the coveted F class seat is so amazing, please, just pay the extra few bucks and buy it and get the perks that way.

Why? Those people likely aren't listed for upgrades because the "F class seat is so amazing," but rather because that's one of their benefits and they may as well at least try to use it. Should the seat be left to go out empty to avoid the inconvenience (if it somehow is one?) of the upgrade list being long?

I must say, that's a very strange thing to not be able to stand. It seems the easiest solution would be for you to just not look at the upgrade list.

Quoting rising (Reply 15): Was it?

Yes, it was, I should point out since it isn't apparently so obvious. Most of her flying is with me and she gets the 1K benefits anyway since I have earned them...

Besides, the cynic in me makes me think no one called United, but someone rushed on flyertalk to be the first to post... and United found out that way (if they didn't know it already).

Quoting blueflyer (Reply 6): My wife wants to know who is the idiot who had to blabber about it instead of keeping his mouth shut and not letting United in on their mistake...

No kidding, ha!

I was griping to a colleague a week ago about how I never get upgraded on flights (I'm only a Premier Gold and haven't been upgraded on a flight in 9 months) but then, via the 1K mistake, I got upgraded on 3 out of 4 flights! I know it was a mistake and will go back to normal now but those three flights were enjoyable while they lasted. Now I'll go back to having virtually no benefits via Mileage Plus.

Quoting rising (Reply 15): We've seen this happen before on many occasions where people book flights based on a computer clitch, only to come back and demand the airline honor it after the issue is resolved, no matter if the price/upgrade defied common sense.

It's a very slippery slope with this, though. What's to stop an airline from offering a great sale, leaving it active long enough to sell more cheap tickets than they really desired, then just claiming it was a glitch and trying to upcharge or cancel the tickets? It is always incumbent upon the retailer to list prices as desired, not on the consumer to determine the reasons for the price.

Since airlines use a pricing structure that is so opaque and difficult to understand, it's sometimes not apparent whether something is a mistake or a promotion anyhow. It's not like going to a store and seeing a discrepancy between listed prices - the exact same flights can be $200 one day, $400 the next, and then $150 the next week. If the airline makes a mistake ends up offering that for $75, many people who book it would have no idea they were booking a mistake. Sure, some people with more industry knowledge can reasonably guess the reason for the low fare (i.e., no fuel surcharge), but even then they can't be 100% sure why it is being offered that way (Is it an unadvertised sale? A new policy? A mistake?), just that it is being offered that way.

Quoting rising (Reply 15): Was it? How many people do you think, if this issue was not resolved by UAL, would have attempted to book advantageous tickets/upgrade based on their "new" status?

I'll assume he was kidding based on the 'smileys' after his post. I agree with you there's a lot of dishonest folks out there for sure but that doesn't mean other folks can't joke around.

Quoting 777ord (Reply 17): What I cannot stand, is how long that upgrade list is. F almost always goes full with revenue purchases, let alone when you try to upgrade and a typical SAN-ORD flight will have 49 upgrades for an A319 with one open seat. If the coveted F class seat is so amazing, please, just pay the extra few bucks and buy it and get the perks that way.

Eeh, I am sure you never complain when you actually get the upgrade. I for one will never complain for having the opportunity to upgrade for nothing and will never complain if someone else gets it ahead of me. One this is for sure, i am not forking out the $$ to pay for a domestic upgrade.

Quoting steex (Reply 19): I must say, that's a very strange thing to not be able to stand.

Agreed, that was weird.

Quoting 777ord (Reply 17): If the coveted F class seat is so amazing, please, just pay the extra few bucks and buy it and get the perks that way.

You do realize that no active participation is required to be included on the upgrade list? Passengers who are entitled to an upgrade are included on the list automatically at one of three thresholds before boarding depending on their status and the system isn't programmed to stop adding names to the list when it has grown to a point where it is realistically impossible for the latest additions to get an upgrade.

The only thing a qualified passenger has to do to end up on the upgrade list for any given flight is buy a ticket in coach.

If being on the list required active participation, I am sure a lot of fliers wouldn't bother because they know they face extremely long odds...

Quoting 777ord (Reply 17): F almost always goes full with revenue purchases

Depends on the market and the day of the week. I have been on an A320 where I was one of three paid F fares...

Quoting blueflyer (Reply 20): Besides, the cynic in me makes me think no one called United, but someone rushed on flyertalk to be the first to post... and United found out that way (if they didn't know it already).

The United rep, Shannon, who posts on Flyertalk found out because the 1k lines were flooded, not by anyone crying to United. Their phone system recognizes 1k's and directs them to that private line, no matter which number you call, so when that line gets 10x the number of dials, they start to wonder what's going on.

Quoting rising (Reply 15): We've seen this happen before on many occasions where people book flights based on a computer clitch, only to come back and demand the airline honor it after the issue is resolved, no matter if the price/upgrade defied common sense.

She actually clarified, that anyone who got a free Economy + seat because of this, would be allowed to stay in that seat, unless there is a flight change. At that point, what ever status you have currently will apply. I think it is a very gracious way for United to handle it, particularly, since it was resolved in less than 24 hours, so not that many people could abuse it. It is not the same as a $4 plane ticket to Asia, if I had wanted an Y+ seat yesterday, I could not have paid if I tried.

Quoting steex (Reply 22): It is always incumbent upon the retailer to list prices as desired, not on the consumer to determine the reasons for the price.

It is good customer service to honor mistakes, particularly when they are not big ones, but legally, a company does not have to. In my law class, we discussed the example of a company that misprints an ad in the paper. When a consumer buys something they are offering a contract, when the retailer sells it, they are accepting the contract, not the other way around. So a company does not have to sell anything to anyone, if it does not want to. This is a little trickier to resolve with technical glitches, that allow a computer to actually complete the sale at the incorrect price, but precedence has shown that airlines are not required to honor computer mistakes.

[Edited 2013-01-08 10:33:36]

Quoting cruiseshipcrew (Reply 8): Don't need silvers trumping 1Ks now.

I am not even Silver, and I was awarded 1K status on the day I happened to book a business trip. Sadly, it's only EWR-PIT-EWR but I did get a first-class upgrade this morning on my Q400 flight.

Quoting rising (Reply 13): The person who does not feel comfortable taking something they did not earn. It's called honesty. Some of us still practice it.

I also called UA to make sure something wasn't really goofy with the system. It's an unrelated thing, but I very upset with the lack of status my credit card (MileagePlusClub) gets me with the annual fee I have to pay. I would have expected at least free E+, so I'll admit despite my honesty in contacting UA, I took full advantage of their mistake of the error and booked EWR-GVA-EWR for this coming summer, free E+ and on the first class standby list with my g/f.

TIS

Quoting rising (Reply 15): How many people do you think, if this issue was not resolved by UAL, would have attempted to book advantageous tickets/upgrade based on their "new" status?

Right, I'm sure you wouldn't have even considered booking a MP ticket with your new 1K status. Just like I'm sure you wouldn't consider booking a $43 TPAC F ticket.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/travel...e-error-air-fare-united/index.html