Itīs interesting how things change.

Just a week ago I was planning to do 90% of my revenue flights on AC metal (50k-70k miles per year, all for leisure) for the foreseeable future.

Now Iīm most likely going to only do 35k miles next year as with the new program I donīt even have enough credits to upgrade three intīl Latitude trips. (and donīt even get me started on the elimination of SSWUs, threshold bonuses and credits for flight passes)

BA seems like a decent option:
- Silver status (pretty much comparable to *G, not not quite as good) only requires 400 tier points which equates to one roundtrip FRA-LHR-North America and and one intra-European roundtrip in C. BAīs C fares are often comparable to ACīs Latitude fares
- 100% bonus miles for Silver members
- upgrades for 12.5k miles o/w from Premium economy to Business Class, so basically the miles Iīd earn on a roundtrip pay for the upgrade (e.g. roundtrip FRA-LHR-SFO in WT+ is $1500a.i., upgraded to business class, but no miles earned in return)

Do you really want to go to UA?

With your flying pattern you should have plenty of options, have you looked into BA and AA?