Originally Posted by spin88

My personal history is as someone who spent $50K+/year on UA pre Smisek. People would ask me why I flew such a bad airline and I would says (a) they actually treat their elites well, I'm protected to a great extent from poor service and (b) I get miles that I use one or twice a year for a family vacation overseas in reward J.

Jeff in 2012 took away the better service for elites while cutting the quality of the product AND he make redemption much, much less easy to get, and more expensive. At this point, I see no advantage in MileageMinus. I can't find workable rewards, and the miles UA wants is ridiculous. Basically its a 1 c/mile bonus program at this point. Delta has a similar 1c/mile bonus program called SkyPeso. The different is that Delta has the A220, it has IFE on its planes, it does not have horrible 10x in Y on widebodies, it does not have the torture seats UA put on the A319/A320, it does not have the 24" Boeing slim line bathrooms, its lounges have showers, it's wine is drinkable in Domestic F, and actually good in J, it's staff is usually both more accommodating and pleasant and is authorized to fix things, and its food (both in domestic F and J) is better.

United has a junky reward program as does DL, but it also has much worse product and service. On the routes I typically fly I have options, and UA is distinctly NOT competitive at this point, outside of the few times that they are materially cheaper, I can use an AMEX Lounge in their terminal, and the flight is short.