I generally think it's cyclical. They will all cut as far as they think that they can get away with, and where they see negative financial affects of the cuts, you'll see them ease up on them. Some examples of this are the recent improvements in food (both in the air and in the lounges), the pretty rapid installation of wifi (once they finally got started), and now with the removing the charge on alcohol for longhaul flights.

I agree the removing of the host miles status from the award tickets could actually be a benefit for a lot of people. There will be more E+ seats avail for elites and more for UA to sell to kettles