Originally Posted by QS Dreamer

Today's Wall Street Journal has the article (pay wall - https://www.wsj.com/articles/sapphir...d=hp_lead_pos6 )

TLDR: "United executives have told JPMorgan they believe the Sapphire Reserve card is competing directly with the airline’s cards and siphoning off customer spending, according to people familiar with the matter."
6 more years on the current deal and more than half of the company's cash earnings over the next 5 years will come from the card (why UAL is worried about the attrition).

My take is if they hadn't devalued their own card benefits (boarding, people can buy the same benefits ala carte), United wouldn't have this issue.