Originally Posted by
STS-134
Mapping the old system for Premier Gold (50000 PQM) onto the new system (10000 PQP), we can calculate that UA wants at least 20 cpm if you are going to fly 50k miles. That's absolutely insane. You're talking about $2k R/T tickets from the US West Coast to Asia at that point. Alternately, you're talking about flying 83333 miles instead of 50000 at the old requirement of 12 cpm (50000 PQM + 6000 PQD). I mean, I like traveling, but I'm not going to just literally throw money away like that. A few years ago, I purchased a personal ticket to go to Asia about 3-7 days prior to departure, and even that fairly last minute ticket was only around 13-15 cpm. You literally have to TRY to throw away money to hit a 20 cpm target if you're flying Y; if you always fly J or F, you'll hit that target easily, but you don't care about status if you do that.
While I agree that it's going to be extremely hard to earn status on just pure spend, I think the new Gold will end up benefitting most of the short/medium-haul travelers on OPM. A very large chunk of corporate travelers make up the type of travel of 24 PQF and 8000 PQP, it's really just 12 round-trips a year, or once a month and $667 a ticket.
Those that were previously doing something like EWR-DFW/IAH once a month would have only gotten 33,600 PQM and were stuck at Silver will now be Gold. Assuming they're spending over $667 per ticket which is not unreasonable if booked a week ahead. I'm not sure that this is the right approach or not, but that group of travelers should be happy. And may end up filling up the E+ cabin and make 1K/GS who buy last min to sit in the back (which I've seen happen many times).
As for status, I fly J and F long-haul and I still care about it and there are still benefits to me for the time being. Whether or not it's worth 24,000 PQP is debatable.