Originally Posted by flysurfer

The last time I checked, UA still charged money in exchange for being allowed to fly on their planes. Surely UA's responsibility is to attract business (aka money) in competitive markets. Many of those "freeloaders" chose UA metal (and paid for it with money, believe it or not!) because of E+. From now on they will simply choose the cheapest *A carrier or the one with the most convenient connections or upgrade opportunities.

Beginning today, if you travel in coach, there's no hard reason for choosing UA over any other *A carrier. Hence UA will lose business from *A elites, while gaining nothing at all from their own elites or customers, because nothing changes for them. Sure, a few *A elites will switch to MP because of this (creating mileage liabilities and spending their MP miles on their home carrier metal, hence costing UA money again), and a few will certainly pay up for E+ access.