UA 1Ks haven't had to use mileage upgrades due to the great benefit that are CR-1s (regionals). However, what once could be done for 40K miles (8 regionals earned) will now take 150K flown.

You used to have to fly 10K UA BIS metal per quarter to earn them; with the change there is no incentive to fly UA metal (just have to credit to MP/OP).

The EUA became worthless when CO moved to actively market the various upsell/buyups options for tens of dollars (not that I have any say in that, its their airline to run or ruin) but the kicker was there was no fallback for elites who no longer had their "cornerstone" benefit save a smattering of bulkheads and exitrows in a cramped Y cabin. This is an area when I think CO can learn from UA/AA/DL in offering E+ so there's at least enough seats with decent legroom to accommodate elites and offer a free drink/prepackaged food item for upper elites in the back.

This page describes it:

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53017,00.html

Note that the earning rules on that page are the now obsoleted UA rules that were a lot more generous.

You knew that they were not going to keep the generous UA benefits. Why is that surprising? The biggest question is still lurking and that is E+.

Any updates on where the line will be drawn between non-Gold status and Gold status within the Star Alliance? Is it safe to assume 50k?

Premier Executive 100K or 1K for short.

The "1K" brand is pretty strong.

The changes to CR1s suck, they'd be fine under the following scenarios:
For 75k+, 10(up to 4x)-15k(unlimited) BIS on UA/CO metal, counter starting once you are Platinum.

Otherwise there's basically no earning in Q1, only a few in Q2.

The SWUs are now aligned, again, not in the best way, especially since non-elites can still upgrade the lower buckets with cash+miles, if they're going to bar SWU from the lowest fare buckets, they can at least allow a nominal (say $200 P/D) fee to upgrade <W fares with SWU.

The "best of both worlds" is starting to look a lot more like star trek than what most people would consider "best" of both worlds. :/

No question. And E+ has never been mentioned. Not once. It remains "unmmentionable."

For a huge part of the UA experience that so many people consider so profoundly key, this does not inspire confidence.

In my experience, when a huge corporation is about to do away with a universally-loved benefit, they do it by using silence...

Wow... with the relative lack of... ambivalence towards these changes, it's striking to see how far apart the programs were.

Hmmm :/

I was looking forward to going for 1K to get the swus next near. Now that I know I would not be able to use them, I guess I am not going to worry about it.

Fare restricted SWUs

Most of my international tickets (aside from Asia) are on L fares so it looks like I'll be trading my newer SWUs on CC.

I would gladly accept 4 unrestricted SWUs with one extra for each additional 25K EQMs!

How do you know what I knew? And where did I say anything about a surprise? Please don't interpret anything into my post that I didn't say. All I did was answer a question as objectively as I could. The sentence you quoted was simply there to avoid confusion.

Possibly since CO/UA *G is 50k+

Scott,

Mileage appears to count toward 2012 status regardless of tail but is that also true for revenue contribution toward GS?

If they do rip out E+ the level of reaction from the general elite base, to say nothing of the FTers, will be apocalyptic. UA flyers have had E+ for a decade now and I doubt they can be bribed with whatever faux giveback is offered for the removal of E+.

The DL FTers launched a major campaign over SkyMiles when Mullin pooped all over it to the extent where the negative changes were in time rescinded and if CO does decide to pull E+ for cost, I sure hope they figured in the customer backlash (as in marching down Wacker with torches and pitchforks, protesting stockholder meetings, and other such cute activities) in their computations because it's going to be ugly.

I know the programs would remain separate, but what would be the priority for upgrades for a CO elite flying UA metal and viceversa?

Any news on when CO Plat 100k would be at the same level of 1K on UA metal?