Oh, how I love this question. I'll answer it for you straight: UA would rather that you (and I) take your (and my) pithy dollars somewhere else and not gum up the system and tie up valuable resources that they could otherwise either cut or dedicate to serving the one customer they really care about: The elusive full-fare C or F pax. What you have paid for the year is less than two business class tickets West Coast to Europe. As I have said before (if maybe not in those words) when the airlines (all of them) started the mileage programs they opened a can of worms. Of course they don't call us that. At United they refer to us as the "underperforming customer segment". Let me paraphrase a popular saying attributed to Winston Churchill, I believe: Mileage Program Elite Levels are a way of saying "good customer" until you find one that pays you more.