Originally Posted by
greg99
mixed bag - I do business trips on the West Coast (big win), transcon (big lose, because I usually book a couple of weeks in advance) and internationally (big win because it's in C). The issue is that I do quite a bit of leisure travel, especially international, and I will lose *big time*. ...
The problem is that the package of changes that UA has made (especially the near elimination of domestic upgrades) recently has made my 1K membership much less valuable to me than my default MM Gold membership, so I'm more likely to spread that international C travel around to other carriers.
Greg99 nails it well:
transcon: better to go AA, especially to reach 1MM perma-gold
shorthops on west coast: slightly better in new plan vs. old
international: miles better on OneWorld or *A partners, esp for inner circle of *A (AC, ANA, Austrian, Brussels, Lufthansa, Swiss) that award extra 25-100% bonus for silver/gold/plat/1K 1MM
int'l lounge access, checkin better on *Alliance. 1 MM AA still does not allow partner lounge access.
Limited incentive to fly united to reach 2MM, but is(will) that be worth anything?
Biggest errors on United's part is sowing confusion: many moving and interlocking parts (and changing rules)
- award miles (have to watch fare class more closely on partners)
- qualifying miles (but doesn't matter for MM unless you exceed 50K and you beat qual$))
- qualifying dollars (hard to know target at beginning of year, and hard to read from a ticket price just how much is a united dollar vs. a fee, tax, or other cost.)
United has obscured the answer "yes" to the question "should I take United for this flight?" They've even made the answer "no" for long haul flights. Anyone who remarks that United wants to downplay incentives to take those longhaul flights should bear in mind that United has those fare buckets already in place. No point in flying them empty - granted, UA would prefer to move a seat to a higher fare class.
the unknown utility of miles was already making long term incentives cloudy. I really slowed counting existing miles and upgrades, because I could rarely seem to use them. Economy plus and early boarding remained good incentives.
Ultimately, they've made flights even more transactional, rather than relationship based. And that transaction is as likely to go elsewhere.