Show me more flight options!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UA895]

Long post here, please bear with me. The new Flight Search display looks pretty, but essential functionality has not improved one bit. Given that Studentuniverse.com is a 100% web-based business I really hope that making the flight search function more powerful is #1 priority for you guys.

A couple of points:
-the old display had an option to "Change Flight Times" which resulted in significant increase in # of flights displayed. I used this 100% when booking a ticket here. This function has disappeared, and the initial search results of the new site do *not* include flight options I always found on the old one. I could go into more detail here.

-Please, please, please give us options with more than 2 connections. I know that every e-ticket can have at least 8 segments no problem. Sure, some of the student fares may have a limit on the # of transfers, but generally the limit is 4 each way. I have yet to see Studentuniverse give me more than a double connection each way. Two reasons why this is so important to me: 1) Despite "married availability/married segments" many times the required booking class is only available on a certain routing that has 3 or more connections. 2) When purchasing a ticket, I am extremely price-sensitive, and the Frequent flyer miles earned enter into the cost-benefit analysis. Give me a more circuitous routing anyday!!! Despite your charts on FF miles, I always receive miles on UA, and never fail with upgrades either.

-If the website can't be improved to display more than the most basic flight options, then please give us an option to book over the phone. Even with a small fee this would be great.

I can't count how many times I had to take my business elsewhere because of Studentuniverse.com's limitations. I fly over 150,000 miles/year, but only a fraction of that can be from Studentuniverse because of the generally weak website. I am well informed, and know when it is an availability issue, and when it is a website issue. I find your fares to be slightly higher than the lowest published fares on the market usually. However, the lack of advance purchase makes them attractive to me. The limitations on routing especially, often make it impossible to use them though.

[phild]

Thank you for your posting UA895, I work for StudentUniverse, and I appreciate the time you took in putting this together. It's probably easiest if I respond point by point:

*We did remove certain flight options in our latest search results change; eliminating some flights that had longer durations at the same price as shorter flights. We did debate this, but ultimately we looked at the frequency of purchase of these flights, and the rate was so low that it made sense. In these instances, we always try and look at our student's current search and buying patterns before we decide. We also did extensive user testing and feedback on this, bringing students to our office as well as going to schools and asking for feedback on a wide variety of changes. We have our own thoughts on everything, but will always defer to user testing and history when we make an important decision

*In terms of the number of connections, again, the same logic prevails. If a flight has 1 stop or 4 stops, for the same price, we would likely not show the 4 stop option. If you're saying that the ONLY flight available has that many stops, and that all flights with fewer stops were not available, that is an extraordinarily rare occurrence. If our classes of service are sold out for one connection options, the odds on finding a 3+ connection flight with availability in all classes is very low. In terms of the FF miles on UA, we've had similar feedback from other students.

*Having students book over the web is a basic principle of our company. Not having to spend thousands of hours searching/offering/booking flights for students allows us to charge less for tickets. Along with the upfront cost savings that we can pass along, we also avoid any and all questions on what dates were meant to be booked, by having students do it themselves. In terms of the fee option-anyone who works in an airline call center will tell you that the most common call is to request that a search be done for them, and most of the time it's a person just looking to see if they have any different results than the online search the customer performed moments before. The customer confirms that the option they saw online is the best, then completes their booking online at no fee, and increases the cost for everybody. Our customer service team is available 7 days a week to help people with any variety of situations, but I don’t see us duplicating the work our website does in the near future.

We don't have too many students that fly anywhere nearly as you do, and you clearly know your travel well. Although I'm sure you did not get the answers you want, I hope that this explanation helped in some way, and that you will continue to check our site out for your future travels. As you would well know, no one travel site is going to win the price war 100% of the time, and we are certainly no exception.


Phil