<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">if they foster among the ruminant UA passenger herders the impression that "Hey, he's only a 1K" then it will be increasingly more unpleasant to have to be on the road with them as much as I now am.</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">I don't think that you'll necessarily be seeing 1Ks (as they exist/qualify today) getting that much less. I think it will be more along the lines of others (high revs) getting perhaps more?

And it is entirely possible that 1Ks (as they exist/qualify today) may no longer find themselves at the "top of the heap" in respects to some aspects of the current program.

Also agree with gleff in that much is probably still being discussed and hasn't been decided upon and probably won't be until the last possible moment.

Would add that a Chapter 11 scenario might contain different elements that a non-Chapter 11 scenario.

My biggest concern is that I have a strong personal memory of back when Premier Executive was the highest level available, and Premier Executives received the attention level that you would expect from the highest level.

Then, when the highest level was moved up to 1K, suddenly when a Premier Executive marched up to a counter, you no longer got the same service any longer as you were no longer top dog.

IMHO, there is a mainly psychological "attitude" that exists at United and many other service companies that have various status levels, where personnel often ignore all but the highest status level when deciding on who to go out of their way for.

There is also, IMHO and experience, a psychological perception/ego on the part of the customer about being "top dog" as well. Many customers don't want to be part of a program unless they can be "top dogs."

United did recognize this fact in the past and it was stated many times to me as the reason why they didn't want to create a 2K level. They knew that many of their employees would somewhat expectedly start to only give their best service to 2Ks and start to ignore (I hate to use that word in this context, but I think you know what I mean) the old 1Ks. And there weren't enough 2Ks to warrant the possible alienation of many of the 1Ks, so they kept things status quo.

So, in a nutshell, I personally am concerned that if they create a new category called the HiRev or even Super1K (a high rev 1K), that this naturally occurring psychological shift away from traditional 1Ks as being the "top dogs" would be similar to what I experienced when 1K replaced Premier Executive as being the top 'o the heap.

And I am concerned for United (and therefore also for me) that they might loose many 1Ks if a shift in attentions and service does occur as I've mentioned above.

While I've long advocated a parallel program to Mileage Plus for high revs, I always opinioned that it could only be pulled off beneficially, if they made sure it didn't devalue the 1Ks experience in any way.

Unfortunately, I don't think the training ability exists (especially with regards to re-training existing employees) within United, to accomplish this delicate but crucial element of such a scenario.

And a "he's only a 1K" mindset might likely naturally develop.</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Hmm. PremEx, I have to wonder if your post was meant for the FT folks or the United Marketing department who is reading these posts? </font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">A little bit of both, I always hope. </font>