Understandable. What i hate is what a bad rep the FT community gets among the airline industry. They call us a bunch of whiners. Sure we have plenty of legit concerns, but is this really one? For the 50,000th time, Most airlines in the world are going revenue based. UA doing the same thing is not the end of the world or airline flying. People are only upset because they are getting less free stuff, which tbh is kind of selifsh.

The people who are paying more are getting more. Obviously with any change there will be winners and lowers. But this is the reality of the airline industry. A loyalty program designed in the 1980s is not going to be able to sustain its model in today's industry.

And yeah i probably would never spend $12k on a subpar business product either; i only used that to illustrate the example that premium pax who pay (and yes they do exist on UA) will stand to earn a lot more from this, and why shouldn't they? they are giving the airline a lot of $$ (well deserved or non deserved).

Everyone loves UDU, but i hate them. it devalues the product/quality of first class. UA has no incentive to improve first class when the majority of people sitting there didn't pay for it. Look at AA first class, they still use 500 mile ecerts except for their EXP members, and the quality there is so much better. And at $30 for a 500 ecert, i dont mind paying $250 to upgrade LAX-JFK. Heck, its much better than paying whatever outrageous buy-ups UA offers.

i was using an example. Even if its not a Z/P fare, using the 175% redemption, you'd still get less miles.

Obviously LAX-SYD is just one example.

NYC-LHR is another example of a route that is historically high in price and low in RDM. Under the new scheme, many will benefit (general members probably wont), but business travelers who spend a lot probably will. And NYC-LHR is one of the biggest business markets out there.