As a former UA 1K, the issue wasn't that they went revenue based for elite status, I could have done that just fine... it's that they biased it toward US based people. The requirement for non-US road warriors was outrageous compared to people flying a buttload of domestic segments. As someone who has been overseas for most of my adult life, I get status from long international flights and have about 6 USA domestic segments per year, made it impossible on UA under the new system. If AA goes the same way I'll just go for BA or JL Emerald status, the AA upgrades wouldn't be worth it anymore and I'd get most of the other AA benefits with either JL or BA status. Emerald is my #1 motivation now but don't fly (US) domestic enough to get it on AS.