Here is the text of the email that I sent earlier today to united's 1K voice customer service. I have been planning on sending this email for a long time.

In 2008 I did an elite match to move my travel from NW to UA. I fly 180,000+ EQM per year, almost all my travel is in the PDX-Japan market. I thought being a 1K would be better than being Platinum Elite at NW. I earned my 1K status and learned much about United. This year I have only flown United to Japan once, as United has become non-competitive with NW/DL in many ways. Here are the reasons you aren’t seeing me purchase United tickets very much anymore (FYI I already have 114,000 EQM at NW/DL this year):

1. Miles expiration is 36 months at NW/DL and 18 months at UA
2. Domestic to International segment upgrades are very disjointed. If the international leg of my trip is not yet available for upgrade, but the domestic leg is, I have to use a 500 mile upgrade to confirm the domestic leg upgrade. However, once the International leg upgrade clears, I don’t get the 500 mile upgrade back.
3. International upgrades are not cleared in a reasonable amount of time. I have seen a 747 SFO-KIX with 30+ open seats in Business Class, and my mileage upgrade didn’t even clear when I checked in at PDX for the PDX-SFO portion of the flight. This is ridiculous – especially for a 1K member. Does United actually think they are going to sell 30+ of these ($6,000+ one way) seats within 12 hours of departure? The 4 hour prior to departure is too strict and puts stress on the 1K member waiting for the upgrade.
4. On a TPA-DEN-PDX flight there was a mechanical problem. Agents were not very helpful and I ended up with an 8 hour delay getting to my destination. When I asked at the Red Carpet Club in Denver if UA would provide me a meal during the 4 hour DEN airport portion of my delay, I was told No. Then the Red Carpet Club agent took the “earned” pass that I had to enter the Red Carpet Club. At that moment, a thoughtful and caring UA employee would have offered me free entry into the RCC. This is a true story. 8 hour domestic delay due to a mechanical and poor re-accommodation policies of UAL. I felt like I was flying on a Chinese airline in the middle of nowhere.
5. Pacific Fuel Surcharges were still being charged many months after fuel prices dropped drastically worldwide.
6. Inferior Economy Product – only the leg room is better. Otherwise the inedible food, lack of Individual VOD on 747 aircraft and old-style economy seats put UA decades behind many Pacific competitors.
7. Inferior Business Class Product – while the new UB seats are nice and the VOD screen is great, the fact that the entire 777 fleet will take 2-3 more years before it is upgraded is enough to make me stop flying UA. How can you take 3 years to replace your inferior 777 UB seats? I refuse to fly those old style seats when much better options are available on your competitors. The UB meal service has obviously been drastically affected by cost-cutting. Your Flight Attendants obviously haven’t been in service training for years. Overall I experienced poor customer service versus excellent customer service.
8. Elite Choices – what a joke. These don’t even include any upgrades? It’s also very insulting to have “entries” into a drawing. This is not a tangible benefit. This is a gimmick. This does not reward loyalty. Time to rethink that one big time! Travel for us is Business, it isn’t a game.
9. Award Fees – NW/DL does not charge Award Fees to Platinum Elites (75,000+ EQM). The fact that UA is charging us to use the miles we earned to show loyalty is insane. There is no administrative cost with issuing an e-ticket within a shorter period of time prior to departure. This is all electronic. How can you charge $100?? This is pure and simple desperate attempts to increase revenue at your customers expense.
10. NW/DL is offering me 10,000 miles round-trip bonus for every round trip I fly through the end of 2009. UA has no such counter-offer.
11. NW/DL offered a 1 mile upgrade on Y/B/M fares this month. There was no similar promotion at UA.
12. Y/B/M FARE BONUS. This is huge!! NW/DL offers a 50% mileage bonus on Y/B/M fares. This is a significant number of miles that I would not have if I flew UA to Asia. This is pretty much the #1 reason I will buy very few UA tickets.
13. Today I woke up to a 15,000 EQM loyalty bonus from NW/DL. This was to help us reach our Elite levels, taking into account the economy and the reduced amount of Business travel. Where is UA’s recognition of this problem? How is UA going to keep their Elite Customers??
14. Red Carpet Club is an inferior product. The Narita Red Carpet Club has a pathetic offering of processed cheese, saltine crackers, Japanese snack crackers, bananas, and cheap cookies. The NW/DL Business Class lounge has a hot/cold buffet of Asian and Western foods that is a true reflection of what an International Business Class Lounge offers their customers. You should ask to tour the NW/DL Club next time you are in Narita – and compare it with the UA NRT RCC. There is no comparison.
15. Award availability - I wanted to look at flying UA for my Fall 2009 European vacation. I wanted to fly Business class using award miles. In February I was doing searches for October 2009, Business Class from PDX-AMS and the computer literally told me there were no Business Class saver award seats available for the entire month of OCTOBER????? Your premium cabins are practically empty as it is. How can you not offer seats for 8 months in the future during a slow travel month??? I ended up booking 2 Business Class tickets on NW/DL using miles with multiple flight/date options to choose from.

Good luck becoming competitive. It is very clear to me after experiencing UA that your airline has lost the ability to compete for very frequent international traveler’s business.