As a Brit who is with UA, I would say that UA is totally useless unless you fly to the USA regularly. If you do, then it's great, but not as great as it was since earning miles has been massively reduced and mileage awards have gone up astronomically. Fortunately I'm lifetime Gold with UA and also I fly to the US regularly so it still works for me. But if neither applied, it would be a very unattractive programme.