I'm 1MM flyer who realistically will hit 2MM around the time I retire and 3MM never (or right at the time I die so I never reap its benefits). I definitely enjoy 1K, and used to think that if I retire at 2MM and have Platinum, I can live with that because it's kind of "1K lite"--looks like 1K to the outside world (checked bags, boarding lines, bring all your friends into E+, etc), but you just never get upgraded. However, with the free meal benefit and now this change fee, it seems clear that Platinum is going to end up much more like Gold than 1K. I don't really change awards that often, but I certainly do last-minute bookings, and, at this rate, surely by the time I drop down to platinum there will be fees for that as well.

That got me thinking... I'm a little behind, but maybe I should switch airlines and try to earn 1MM on another airline before I retire. Unfortunately, it really doesn't seem that the grass is greener on the other side. In particular, AA used to give out lifetime miles for everything, including credit card spend, and then recently cracked down and limited it to BIS miles. But they have so many legacy MM flyers that they can't ever give any real benefits for that status. DL gives only *silver* status for MM, and gold for 2MM. Adding insult to injury, DL doesn't even give anything of note for 3MM.

Another option, I suppose, is to stop chasing status now. In particular, I've been intrigued by B6, which might have a superior product on some of the routes I fly (such as SFO-BOS and SFO-JFK) with cheaper fares (or rather identical fares with fewer restrictions like Friday/Saturday stay). So I could just fly whatever domestically and enjoy my lifetime gold when flying internationally on United. But then I worry that some of my international upgrades might not clear, or, worse, that instead of earning miles faster than I can spend them, I might actually run out of miles to use for upgrades. Plus I travel a lot with family, and want to send my kids off to college with a good head start on their MM status, because 1MM is definitely still way better than 0MM. I can't even imagine flying UA without at least gold at this point.

So basically after considering the options, I think maybe I'm stuck with UA for now. I'm okay with the 1K benefits I get today, and given that I can't predict the future, sticking with UA might turn out to have some benefits. I used to have to stretch to hit 1K, but with the new 200% premium cabin benefits, it's a bit easier. (I'm still kicking myself for not getting that credit card that gave you 10K EQM annually, which would make 1K trivial for me at this point.) With SFO as my home airport, sticking to UA is kind of the path of least resistance anyway. Plus, perhaps ironically, I'd be pretty sad to lose access to the SFO centurion club when I fly.