If there is another pandemic or "massive economic crash" (which has been predicted for about 10 years now) then we'll have a lot bigger problems than what UA is doing to their loyalty program. No for profit company is crafting their long term strategy based on another pandemic happening. They would be intentionally knee-capping themselves. If it happens they will have to deal with it (just like they and rest of us did last time).

Look, every... single... year... UA makes changes to their programs, most of them negative and folks on FT love to flog the "they'll regret this when the next recession comes along" line and the reality is no, no they won't. They are making far more money now, during the "good times" than they ever have and when the bad times come they will roll out incentives to stimulate demand and FTers will squeal with delight and start threads about the "awesome" opportunity. I don't even think my take is controversial; anyone that has been on FT for any period of time has seen this movie more than Seinfeld reruns.

To those that continue to predict the "demise of UA," every single year, based on every programmatic tweak which doesn't benefit them, well... I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day, so maybe someday the "sky is falling" crowd will be correct... eventually. But so far? Not so much...

UA driving credit card sign-ups to get the most out of the program is just smart business; both their major competitors (DL/AA) have already squeezed more out of that lemon than UA has and they'd simply be foolish to leave that money on the table. The next step in "boiling the frog" will probably be to actually require you to PAY for the ticket using the UA credit card (rather than just holding the card) in order to extract the major benefits. Evil for sure, but seems like a logical next step (and save the "don't give them any ideas" replies; you can be certain they are smart to enough to have considered that move all on their own).

Regards