Originally Posted by
kenjih
Well, the situation would be to be a 1K member in 2003 and upset at United's restrictions on SWUs that year. If I remember right, you could only use them for H or higher economy fares or C business fares. After alot of lobbying they issued the sweet spot certificates as an apology that year, which were similar to today's SWUs (except they could be used for Z fares).
When I saw your post, I thought maybe UA decided to bring these back this year, but the memories of them are good. 1Ks on Flyertalk and elsewhere vehemently protested making SWUs eligible for H and higher fares and C and higher fares which depleted their value. United then issued these Sweet Spot certs as an incentive that were the equivalant of SWUs and but could be used on almost all fares including international S & T fares.
In addition, United then made a change and allowed the already issued SWUs to be valid for Q, V, and W fares and D fares as well.