For those of us for whom chasing Plat each year became a pretty big deal, requiring a lot of careful planning and choosing vacations based as much on distance from home as other reasons... does the recent devaluation of Plat (the fees added to award ticket changes and, worse yet, making the "close in" window 60 days instead of 21) come as a relief? Because now the differences between Gold and Plat have been greatly reduced?

Many of us will never be 1K material. Too many miles, too many dollars. Platinum gave us something we could reach for, with the very tangible benefit of fee-free award ticket travel. The RPUs, for me, where never that big a deal. Boarding Group 1 was nice, but that nice?

I think UA ought to consider doing away with Plat entirely, and just offer the RPUs as a 75k milestone. The biz traveler who could make 1K if he/she really tried... more incentive to do so without Plat as an "accomplishment."

But that's separate from my feeling that it's time to stop chasing a target that's been a real stretch for me and get back to flying without so much careful planning. Not having to worry about flying SFO-ORD-MSN instead of the more-direct SFO-DEN-MSN (flying through ORD nets about 600 additional miles). Being able to try a different airline now & then if the routing and/or timing is better.

So, seriously, this does come as a bit of a relief to me. Perhaps I'm just getting too old for this game, or too sensible. Not likely the latter!

Your thoughts?