Unfortunately, the airlines have shown the tendency of being willing to adopt a "bad news" change once a competitor announces a similar change first.

The non-refundable fares and ticket change fees followed that sort of process.

CO announced changes to its ff program in September with higher upgrade fees. Now American is following suit with its own ff program changes to be in line with CO.

If the past is an indicator, UA will probably follow suit with some type of change in their ff program to bring itself in line with AA and CO.