So I’ve heard the same from travel director at a very large consulting firm this week - the corporate contract for United provides for rebates at the end of each quarter, and at the end of year the amenities (GS, 1K, Gold upgrades; UC passes) are allocated for the next year. She explained they have received a very large allocation of amenities for next year - so effectively someone on a large corporate discount contract that wasn’t renewed could be provided the GS status through their central corporate travel management team.

For high spenders here I am hoping that this is a glitch, but it does seem as st530 pointed out that those booking via a direct channel with United were evaluated as normal.

In the congratulations email United sent out this week, there is a personalized video link attached. In the video they call out “Your United spend” which exactly matched my own tracker - would be interesting to see for others if there was any discrepancy. This is the first time I’ve ever had my “UA metal” number played back to me from the company.