Will tread a little lightly into this one by initially saying that, yes, UA and other airlines "prohibit" quite a few things that would clearly be advantageous to us flyers. And, while they are not at all "illegal", they are prohibited because the airlines say they are.

If I, after flying my butt off every year on 100+ UA flights in order to requalify for 1K (with the vast majority at my expense and with most flights flown on UA at a higher cost than I could fly them on other airlines), thus "earn" six SWUs, should I not be allowed to use them as I wish, even by exchanging them for something that would be of more benefit to me in my type travels, i.e., exchanging for credit vouchers or
HK-49s? No, I guess not, because UA says that is not Kosher.

Come on, relatively few of us have the opportunity to take the number of international trips each year required to use all six. Some of us 1K'ers don't have the luxury of having our employer send us overseas on business. And, for sure, these SWUs are essentially wasted for domestic upgrades.

I am sitting here with all six of my 2001 SWUs still available. A month ago I was going to use four of them to upgrade me and my lady friend on a trip to BKK in early March, but UA suddenly upped the BKK fare by $200 each. Then was going to use them to upgrade to SIN, and hop over to BKK, but UA then also upped the SIN fare by $200 each, for "low season" travel to Asia.

Sometimes it is really difficult to remain loyal to United, and still comply with all the "rules".