Where (or if) to show loyalty to any particular airline is a decision that is going to differ depending on each person’s situation. In my case, several changes are coming together at United that will probably drive me to switch to the “Free Agent” loyalty program.

Since UA and CO merged programs I have been GS or 1K and, before the merger, I had been at the highest levels of the CO program for probably 15+ years. I attained that status by flying anywhere from 4-10+ international trips (mostly TPAC) in business a year along with 6 or so domestic round trips a year. The amount of travel has been slowly trending down over the past few years. I’m sitting at about 2.55 million miles with United and so have Platinum status through the MM program.

I’ve not had a problem meeting the spending requirements and probably would meet the $18K requirement ----- but there is no way to 54 segments without doing crazy routings that aren’t worth the effort and I don’t think that I would get to $24K on a consistent basis.

I suspect the move to dynamic pricing is going to make “free” award trips a lot more expensive.

The move to requiring you to be flying on UA to use the clubs domestically is reducing the value of that annual expense.

Taking all this into account, I think my best move may be to drop out of chasing status and just use whatever airline makes the most sense to me for any particular trip. I will probably not renew the UA club next year. When I travel internationally, I will look at other airlines (especially the Asian competitors). Won’t need a club membership, because since I am lucky enough to travel in business class, I’ll have access provided on those flights. Result is likely to be less time on UA metal.
When I travel domestically, I’ll be looking at UA, Southwest, and Delta because of where I tend to go. No driving force to use UA since I can always “buy” any status I may need on other airlines (bags, seat assignment, early boarding, etc.) at way less than trying to inflate UA spend to $24K a year. Still have Amex platinum, so that gives me Priority Pass and access to some lounges. Just sit in a nice place and have a good glass of wine in other cases.

Miles for awards? Will start buying most trips and then using the points on the credit card to “pay” for my “award” trips. Will still accumulate miles in programs and will see if there are any reasonable ways to use them.

Last nagging issue is whether to still focus on UA metal to try to get to 3 million miles and get 1K status through MM program. As work career is winding down, I think that could be quite a few years for me to get there and who knows how many devaluations and changes are going to occur over the next few years???

So, it’s the “Free Agent” loyalty program for me!