Thanks for the reply, I certainly didn't understand this to be the new process. And, this isn't directed at you, but more at UA, that if that last sentence is correct it would be a complete game-changer for me. I certainly haven't been one to quickly jump ship, or sound the alarm over post-merger glitches; for the number of hours I've been on the phone with agents lately I've had very pleasant conversations asking how things are going, being encouraged by their optimism that all the kinks are being worked out.

But, being a 1K has devalued for me over the past few years mainly due to the difficulty of clearing SWUs. It's to the point where I will be flexible in my travel (depart on a Wednesday, return on a Tuesday on this current trip) to find NC, now-RN, space so that I know I can clear upgrades at the time of booking. If it becomes policy that all my searching to find RN>0 around dates that work for us doesn't necessarily even mean that my GPUs will clear at booking on something like the $2000 W fares I just bought, then GPUs, and frankly 1K status, have little value to me. I would happily drop to a lower status and spend the remaining miles/money to gain status on a second airline, or I would consider moving all 150k or so of my flying to another airline.

EDIT: Thanks pdx1M. I've been around here a long time, and followed all the merger talk pretty closely, and I thought I had missed something big if this was now the case. Sounds like RN>0 still means a green light to book.