Since Mrs. Fredd and I fly UA and have a lot of UA miles in our account, we hope that UA will make business decisions in its own best interests.

As UA 1Ks, we have generally not had any special seating privileges when flying AC, LH, SK, and one or two other *A carriers when flying intra-Europe. UA agents have also been unable to secure seats in advance for us on a number of occasions, and have offered the opinion more than once that reciprocity seemed limited. It was also explained to me in the LH forum that seating reservations aren't as common on Intra-European flights and that LH starts filling seats from the back. AFAIK the E+ concept is unique to UA but I stand to be corrected.

Our experiences certainly haven't encouraged us to try to fly more on *A partner airlines (with the notable exception of lounge access when making a connection and flying onward within Europe ), so I can understand a *G looking at other options if E+ were no longer an option.