Whew! Lively thread. I thought I was late to a parade looking at the post count and quickly realized this news only pertains to those who use UA as their primary carrier. Just means further away from me returning until all airlines implement the same program. Maybe a year or two.

I am baffled by the timing considering UA has an HVF retention problem. There has to be segments of every class of flyer that is harmed by this and has plenty of time to jump ship and earn status elsewhere still this year. Any bets on AA reaching out to status match within a week or two? Heck for that matter DL too, with better soft product and on time stats?

This will be very interesting how it plays out. You can bet, CEO's of OAL's are celebrating today. It's like the Exec Management group at UA has a death wish.