Based on the reading I've done in the announcement thread, and on various FF related blogs the number one issue is the lack of decent SWUs, especially compared to what the competition offers to its "mere" 100,000 mile fliers.

The problem is you can't just go out and declare that your program is going to offer the best set of rewards when it unambiguously doesn't. (Well you can but then everyone realizes you're at best deceitful and at worst a lying idiot) I think there is clearly a gold (well platinum maybe) stanAArd when it comes to top tier progrAAms, and diamond medallion falls short despite being 25% more miles to reach than ExP or 1K.

When people saw the 125000 eqm price tag they were expecting something special, as an extra 50000 eqm per year is not an easy feat. Instead they get skyclub access (which I wager many DM fliers would get through AMEX anyways) and an "VIP" line that may or may not live up to its billing.

I'm just trying to come up with a good reason for people to fly an extra 50000 miles for meager benefits when putting that on CO will get you both upgrades when available AND * gold status, with a really nice and expansive international lounge network.

For myself I have just under 75000 miles flown and another 35000 already on the books for the next 2 months. I have a choice to stick the remainder on CO and am not sure what to do. Speaking for myself only, if the SWUs included in DM status were even close to what UA offers I would have strongly considered hitting that threshold. Now, I can't really see any reason to and might finish out the year flying CO.