Another unaddressed issue pertains to us million milers at CO. Currently, if I reach Platinum, my wife enjoys the same status.

If I fly 100,000 miles in January 2011, will my wife ALSO be above 'those not flying 100,000 miles' for domestic UG purposes, or will she just be 'plain' Platinum.

I hope Scott thought of something like this, but in the chaos to get things done, who knows. Scott, are you there?

:)

The 100K+ status thing doesn't take effect until 2012. CO and UA have both signaled that there will be 4 status levels: 25/50/75/100K;30/60/90/120P. If the spousal MM benefit remains - and that's a big IF - I would expect that the status level would match so the spouse would be a 100K if you are.

The kicker is on the SWU/CR1 question. Today you have to actually fly to get the SWUs; a spouse does not receive them. The way the new rules are written it is about flying a certain number of miles, not achieving a certain status level to receive the SWUs. This suggests that spousal benefits would continue to not receive the SWUs. It also opens the window to MMers not receiving the SWUs which would be quite a devaluation.

The handwriting is on the wall, they are just not SAYING it...the new program will be Mileage Plus. End of Story. Do you hear OnePass ANYWHERE. No. In the announcement they don't say Silver, Gold, etc. they say 25K, 50K, etc.

Also, at the SMD2 there was no UA/CO exec and staff that worked for the FF programs that said ONEPASS on their nametags, they ALL said MILEAGE PLUS.

OnePass is dead. Get used to remembering UA's 10-11 digit number over OP alphanumeric.


PresPlat going away because 1K will be it. Same thing with the Presidential Plus Card...a new name will be unveiled also.

President's Club will be gone too (and I think Red Carpet Club also) and a new name a la Crown Room / World Club -> Skyclub at DL will be implemented...you can't have a RED carpet club when there is NO RED in your company colors; it's just bad branding.

Prepare yourself former CO flyers...your airline will LOOK LIKE CO, but sound like UA.

- HF

but the level was not announced now. those who fly 75K would be pissed for being at a lower level than those plat with 100K.

How can it be a devaluation if MMers have never received annual (different from one-time threshold crossing) SWUs?

After yesterday's devaluation, and the ominous lack of talk around E+, I think many of us on the UA side would greatly prefer an airline that LOOKED like UA but sounded like CO...

nicely put!

This will probably be the hardest part of the adjustment for me.


Agreed, and based on the guys I spoke with at SMD2 the odds of a new name for the combined clubs seem VERY high

I thought that UA 3MM got the SWUs each year. If I'm wrong there my bad.

Nothing at 2MM, just lifetime RCC (though I think my FIL got 3 or 4 SWUs last year when he hit it) - a one time thing

3MM was 1K for life, so they would have received them. Can't imagine there are too many of them though!

That's a pain. As it is, I can never work out how CO computes its revenue compared to the price I pay for the ticket. I found it very convenient to see the total on the website. It even encouraged me to fly more because I realized milestone was close.

Wonder why they are getting rid of it ??

Conceivably it is because they have no way in 2011 of tracking accrued UA revenue. Hm. Nope, that wouldn't make sense, because they still have to know when to issue the award.

This PPLat benefit actually had significant value. To offset its loss, might I suggest that PPLat/GS customers be allowed to add a companion online sometime before the last EUA sweep? While not the same kind of benefit, it would have significant value.

Maybe there were too many issues with the numbers that were posted, & it was easier to close that customer service issue!:eek: I imagine that this is also in line with the tracking complications, and what info. CO/UA choose to make available to its customers on the website(s)!

I have a feeling it was more around UA's corporate contracts. I think UA has a lot more contracts than CO does, and UA did not want to jeopardize them by publishing a revenue target. Travel managers tend to hate that because it encourages people directly to spend more money, when their goal is to get people to spend less money.

In addition, the "invitation only" approach allows UA to target behaviors they specifically want and have variable targets by market (e.g., in DFW or ATL they may require a lesser spend than say SFO because they want to poach AA or DL business).

Interesting -- sounds plausible to me! I agree that it's clear that, going forward, things are not going to be the way many of us have become accustomed to -- change is underfoot!

CO simply expects you to spend $25k in December.

touché :)

My 2 cents worth. I'm OK with all of the changes except one. The restricted SWUs are next to worthless for me. I made the 100,000 mile mark this year and was very excited to do so. The 4 SWU were a great incentive. What a downer to learn that the SWU are only going to be good on the more expensive tickets. The SWUs earned in 2010 are still good on any fare though, right? Also I feel for the UA folks that are worried about losing E+, I still have my fingers crossed that will be adopted by the new United.

But she appears to be doing so from a CO seat, is this a non-announcment announcment about the seats? :eek:

Do we have any idea about combining UA's life-time miles and CO's as well as the RDMs in the two account? How would CO go about doing this? I have few in CO and UA account and I am really hoping that CO and UA accounts can be combined in 2011 or 2012 so I can pool the mileage in the two accounts!

AFAIK, UA GS will be behind CO PPlats and Plats, but ahead of UA 1Ks and CO Golds for EUA until both programs are merged.

Well, it is up to you... This is probably the only time you will be able to earn unrestricted CO SWUs [2010 SWUs will be good on any fare], so I would probably go for 100K on CO for this year.

I am pretty sure they will, however, what I am not sure about is will it still be EQM based [CO] or BIS based [UA]?

If they chose the BIS option, I hope they will still count lifetime EQMs we have accrued in the past towards MM.

Thanks for the input .... even though the big domestic pump that I was used to may not be happening (IND/IAH/SJC/IAH/IND) .... I will just use the garden hose approach of IND-ABE-IND ..... and figure out how to make it the last hunk ...

Though the 120 EQP for top status is a serious PiTA given the AA EXP 100 EQS equivalent .... 25 weeks of flying on AA vs. 30 weeks on CO .... if there was only 55 weeks in a year ... :)

Scratch that, I apparently read right over the part where they didn't start awarding them until 75k.

You're running out of places to run. CoNited's SWU's still blow DL's out of the water. DL customers would salivate if they had CoNited's equivalent of these.

Well, some systems maybe... but clearly not all. I am looking at my CO-issued BPs from that trip on CO metal that I mentioned right now and they correctly identify me as a "UA 1K / STAR GOLD" and my wife as a "PREM EXC / STAR GOLD".

I don't think that there is too much that can be read into the lack of discussion about E+ in yesterday's announcement. It might simply mean that no decision has been made.

I suppose though that 'no news is good news'? I guess if it was a clear cut money loosing dog, then it would on its way out and fast.

I still think that it will be axed. The conservative thinking that CO is known for will see that the none of the US competition has E+ and cut it, thinking 'well if they don't like it, there is no place to go'. Those of you who see the lack of E+ as more F seats.... All I can say is: don't count your chickens until they hatch.

Does this mean as a Continental Gold member, the complimentary upgrades will go away?????

No. EUAs/UDUs are not going anywhere.

As for how often they clear, well, that's a whole different story.

... Oh, so a regional upgrade is like a CO EasyPass - you have to spend this hard-earned benefit to get something that used to come automatically ...

:confused:

The CR1s are a way to confirm an upgrade in advance, just like using miles. If you don't want to use them you can wait for UDU/EUA to run. Just like SWUs replace miles+copay.

...on CO metal (though it's actually PPlat, Plat, GS, 1K). On UA we're 5th tier (after GS, 1K, 1P, PPlat) :(

edit: Given another post, that might even be 6th tier if we're just lumped in alphabetically with the Golds...

I got the PresPlat version of the email the other day. Today I got a correction:

You received the incorrect version of the Important Elite program updates e–mail notification. The correct version follows. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I guess it's not uncommon for CO marketing to take two tries to get it right. heh

Guess it is a good thing that they have similarly incompetent peers with their merger partners. :rolleyes:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ing-email.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ur-status.html

The Easypass is for the NJ Turnpike not CO Upgrades :D

I got the opposite. I didn't get the Pres. Plat., and they sent me the correct one. Looks like the used the wrong list both ways.

Even with the updated email, I am unclear if this year's SWUs will work for the "disallowed bucket" EWR->PEK tickets I wanted to book today (for travel next May).

Good month good bad
 

In this month I passed the million mile threshold (now of great future uncertainty), 100,000 eqms (unusable SWUs) and $30K spend (the only worthwhile benefit of which, the free card, willl now be taken away at a date uncertain).

Time to stop flying, I guess.

Well, "next to" worthless is pretty vague (how close?), but it seems like a bit of hyperbole in your post. They are clearly still valuable. They're probably worth more than 20-40k miles each (one-way upgrade to BusinessFirst), since the fare differential to buy up to an eligible fare (max $200-300 one-way from some reports here IIRC) looks to be much less than the co-pay that would be required on the lowest fare ($500 one-way) for a mileage upgrade. Of course we don't know what the new fare structure will be, so this could change, but as of now this should be accurate.

So I don't know how you could possibly claim that these are anywhere close to worthless and have anyone take you seriously.

To clarify, while the SWUs are fare class restricted on BF flights, does this imply they can be used on any fare for any non-bf flights (for instance on transcons where EUAs almost never happen)?

Presumably, as that's how they work on UA. They're essentially usable as CR1s if you wish.