In the last year I have been gradually using up my mileage in my US account. I was always amazed that when I would look at UA mileage required to book a flight from Asia to Europe it would always be about 50% more than if I booked through US - for the same exact flights on LH... The difference after the recent changes is now far more significant. This is where I think UA is not competitive - however I wouldn't be surprised if US/AA is going to change that going forward. To give a specific example - from NRT to VCE to MXP and then back to NRT in business class this August cost me 80k miles from my US account on LH. A saver Economy award today on the same flights is 90k miles from UA! 90k miles! Bottom line to me is that UA is not competitive - and US mileage accrual rates are/were comporable to UA's for the past few years.