Originally Posted by
why fly
Also till this year every other year I can remember UA had DOUBLE qualifying miles. So it made its gold around 35k
Perhaps, but that PremEx still did not give RCC or other domestic lounge access to them. Most Premier and PremEx elites at UA fly domestic and not international, so if they want lounge access they either buy it or consider a low-STARGold tier carrier as a second program. At the moment, it is actually shifting from AE to Aegean, which IIRC only requires something like 15K for STARGold since most of its members only fly regionally within the region and earn minimum mileage.