Living in RDU and doing a lot of business travel in the southeast, United is already my number three program. They just aren't competitive for me here compared to AA and DL. Furthermore, I only made Platinum last year thanks to a really good RDU-PEK fare. This year I'll likely only make Gold (thanks P fare PQM getting cut) and to be honest I've seen so few benefits in Platinum over Gold that that isn't really a big deal.

I will, however, strive to keep Gold because I go to Europe a half dozen times a year and Star Gold is so valuable there.