Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
Not trying to be argumentative, but providing an alternative point of view
But to the disadvantage of a earned Plat who might have also earned MMer status
but the average revenue for the two of you could easily be easy than the requirement for Plat ($15/18K).
There has long been a dissatisfaction with companions getting better benefits than earn elites (on FT). Suspect the original concept was the companions (traveling on their own) was an occasional traveler but it is clear (on FT) many companions are traveling more frequently and on cheaper tickets and enjoy the higher elites privileges disadvantaging other elites. Especially as benefits become less accessible.
So there is a different side to this.. UA is trying to bring things back into some balance (from their prospective) as they need to consider both communities and a need to contain the escalating "costs" of a quickly growing 1MMer community.
And reality is the added benefits of Plat over Gold will mean little to most.
Probably the only area where we have a more significant disagreement is that United is doing this to create a sense of balance. The only balance I see here is them looking at their balance sheet.
I think you bring up a point about a 1MM Plat that I hadn't considered. It's a good point. My perspective on that is that the 1MM Plat isn't scoring many upgrades on any of my flights. Instead, they're "fighting" for a much more plentiful resource, E+.
At the end of the day, if United's goal was to balance the two groups of people, I think they could have done that in a number of ways that weren't as punitive to 1MMers. Heck, they've had the data in front of themselves for years. As this problem continued to get worse, they could have changed the benefit years ago and grandfathered anyone who had already earned it.
I understand I have clear bias here. But, I struggle to view United through a positive light in regards to how they've handled this, as they are the only ones with the data in front of them who could have made a proactive decision if they perceived this to be an issue. Historical data would have given them a pretty clear view of what the future was likely to hold in this regard.