I have been a 1K now for five years (including upcoming 2007 qualification). Off the bat it was amazing, upgrades all the time, ground staff going out of their way to help, FAs being extra friendly ALL the time. All of which I value, in particular the upgrades. Recently upgrades are SO difficult to come by (and not just Y to C/F, but C to F), service has gone down hill, and UA's C product is simply not competitive. I buy lots of international C fares, I spend around $40 - 50k a year (on UA) with about $30 - 40k of that on international C fares. The reason I stay with UA is because if I am flying to SYD or Asia (in particular) UA F dominates other carriers C class (for which my company pays). Now clearly my $40 - 50k per year is not worth UGS (and that is UA's business decision, so fine), but my question is this, why should I stay with UA? Believe me, I love UA and really want to, but if I know I am going to SYD or SIN, and paying for C and I know all I am going to get is C (or have a minimal chance of an upgrade), why in the world would I continue to choose UAs inferior C product over QF or SQ?

Now go easy. I am not trying to bash UA. As I noted, I really love UA and even after they abandon me in JFK I stuck with them, basically because of the upgrades. But recently, IME, and hearing other stories on FT, I am beginning to wonder why...

I know full planes mean profitability, but planes are being filled with people like me who fly UA beacause they can get upgrades. Once I become entirely convinced (and I am becoming more and more convinced) that upgrades are nearly impossible to come by I am simply going to choose on quality of C product and ease of schedule. Right now UA has me locked as a customer beacuse of upgrades, as upgrade possibilities diminish, their lock on me becomes weaker and weaker...