I did read the other thread (and this one), and I find it plausible that UA has indeed ratcheted back on biz travelers, but I think we may conflating two things: OPM & Discounts. I'm not sure UA cares whether it is OPM or personal funds, and while they probably (and correctly) surmise that they need not offer as much extra inducement to a sale when using OPM, this is a harder argument. Both because GS not something that works in the moment, but instead directs an entire year of spend, and also because a lot of the time they simply won't know the source of the funds.

My bet is that they are simply trying to avoid "stacking" of sales incentives, and are wanting to protect their margins. Much like they only let UA metal flights qualify for GS since there is more margin than when booking partner flights, they don't want to also give out GS status in situations where they have already discounted the fares. Depending on how deep this discount is, this makes a ton of sense from a margin management perspective, and they are company, not just a flying collective.

That said, they one factor they may have overlooked is that even with special fare codes for companies, the decision making is distributed, and flyers optimize on what's good for them and not necessarily their employers. You may rthink that you have locked flyers in because they have a corporate rate, but only if those companies force their employees to use UA (which is often achieved by using an in-house travel office).

I just hope that my non-J spend will qualify me for 2025...