Well, having 1K was fun while it lasted...next year will almost certainly be my last year having it. I really need to think about if it’s worth keeping the Presidential Plus as well - the new spending requirements greatly devalue earning PQPs (formerly FPQMs). There’s no way I hit the $240k spend to earn the max 10k PQPs. I honestly might have trouble hitting Platinum as well.
Very, very disappointed in this change, and will make me seriously consider for the first time if I should status match away once the new year starts and abandon UA entirely. I hate dealing with the split-hub setup others use in NYC, but this is a killer change - especially if the hordes of Explorer card users stay in Group 2 after this.