Being international, only allowed to fly economy (OPM), some years I will barely make silver looking at my past pathetic-in-United's-eyes spend. Thank goodness for, cough "lifetime Gold" due to 1MM. After this year ends I will be ~150k miles short of 2MM and I think, ceteris paribus, I can get there in the next 2 years of flying United. Atlhough I want to vote with my feet, getting to 2MM might be nice to have when I retire but is not essential by any stretch. But for me the reason I feel locked in is because of the main route I fly, LHR-SFO, and it is basically UA, BA, Virgin Atlantic. Switching now makes no sense to me (I am reaching the end of my working and flying for business runway), and I am not keen on them (I detest BA anyway) much unless in a premium cabin. So I am kind of locked in. I don't think any amount of spreadsheet comparison with PQP/PQF/partner is going to make a difference in my case. I will hope, and that is all it is, that "Lifetime Gold" stays exactly as it is today and can live with that. If there was a way to increase and get those 150k as quick as possible I would do that.

I truly get that they want to reward people that spend more money. And, don't laugh, you would have thought that they would have given a staged soft landing to those of us (ie. me! ) that have been loyal for 20 years or so, and said "look you cheapskate, you aren't going to make it, you will only drop down one level per year in recognition of your loyalty". At the very least make some sort of effort to say "thanks". As I say, don't laugh too much at this because I am shaking my head as I write it thinking "ot a snowball's chance in hell did they even consider this". But the implementation of this tells me the mindset and behaviour that it generates in Toxic Tower.

So the behaviour that it has generated in me is similar. Someone upthread, I think transportprof, said that whereas they would say "give United a go", I will not say that any longer either. Call my bloody-minded and you would be right.