Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
That strawman is raised often but there never been evidence it is more than am insignificant percentage of the total population, and not particularly having a major impact.
It is ironic... you are the one engaging in the strawman here. My post did not say my experience with United handing out status like crazy to my business amounts to an overall major impact to the airline. It's an anecdote. No one outside of United can say how many complimentary status offerings United gives out compared to other airlines. My point is this decision making reveals how United view status with how easy it is for people to acquire 1K without meeting the requirements. Increasing the status requirements is only on paper if there are so many other avenues to acquire status ignoreing requirements. You won't find the same options for Delta diamond unless you will put up half a million dollars. Instead of differentiating by 1K by making it better, United devalued Premier Platinum to being worthless by making its best perks of IN access and plus points either easily acquirable or less useful.
Originally Posted by
escapefromphl
I think since the change from flying 100K miles it's been getting easier and easier. The spend requirement levels haven't really kept up with real inflation, so for corporate flyers those spend targets are just not that difficult.
You are spot on. United has the best routes and timings to Asia from the US for business travelers. It does not require much business travel to hit 1K in business class on these routes.