After reading this I'm pretty shocked at the people who didn't make the cut (and also glad I didn't take first time qualifying as a granted with my 58.5k PQP - but I did make it in early Jan).

TBH at this point I fly United simply because of not wanting miles on every carrier. I have almost a million currently and will continue to hoard until my wife and I can blow them all going to Europe for free (and hopefully I actually have enough with all the devaluations).

The domestic lounge access is pretty nice because I travel on a pretty crappy per diem (even though my company will pay upwards of 10k for a ticket). Would be the only thing I really miss if I don't requal next year.