2011 OnePass Program Changes
 

Hi Everyone, I’m pleased to share the following details about our OnePass program changes for 2011. Let the “I told you so’s” begin…
While OnePass and Mileage Plus will continue to operate separately in 2011, we’re on track to provide you with a single world-class frequent flyer program by January 1, 2012. There’s more to come, I can promise you that! For more details and updates, be sure to check out continental.com/merger.

Thanks as always for your valuable feedback and loyalty.

While Scott said to let the "I told you so's" begin, I think many wearers of tinfoil hats around here just got a pleasant shock to start their morning.

Thanks for the update Scott -- do you guys have a timetable on when one can use a CO upgrade on UA and vice versa?

I can say I'm quite pleased. Thanks Scott!

Do you happen to know if the existing UA SWUs will be good on CO flights anytime soon?

Agreed, and it's always nice to see the Insider.

Goodbye, top-tier transparency.

Plus1!^

Awesome. So its basically the mileage plus program, with the current platinum tier in there for good measure. I read the additional upgrade priority as 100k CO will = 1K priority. The CR1 change is good as well, I think, is it going to be every 25k earned or every 25k OVER 75? that could get annoying...

What are we going to call this level?......Platinum Plus ;)
(Below PP, above Plat)

This is excellent news, so we will essentially have 4 CR1s, 6 SWUs by the time we hit 100K.

Combined with the announcement that UA made today I do not think there are really too many surprises here.

We've got a 4 tier program - 25/50/75/100K EQMs or 30/60/90/120 EQPs on both sides. CR1s are added to the 75K level while SWUs stay at 100K or above. GS sticks around and will remain a nebulous enigma.

The shortened program is interesting but not a huge deal for me. For folks who are used to doing the every other year multiple B fares to Asia in Jan/Feb to get their status it could be an issue.

The only thing that makes no sense at all are the fare classes excluded from the new SWUs. Unless the fares are going to be reorganized (again) the K and G fares should not be listed there. I would expect that STNL would be excluded and W or higher will be valid. CO E fares are equivalent to W fare but with connections so it makes sense to include those as well. But excluding K & G is a very strange move IMO. I hope that's just a typo.


Here's what UA has to say, showing that it is pretty much symmetrical in terms of the changes:
http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53656,00.html

Quote:

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In the coming year, you will begin to experience updates to your travel benefits and rewards as we integrate the United® Mileage Plus® and Continental® OnePass® programs. And while the two award-winning programs will continue to operate separately in 2011, we will be working hard to align benefits and provide you with a single world-class frequent flyer program by January 1, 2012.

Below you will find details about updates to the 2011 elite program and beyond.

2011 updates to note

EQM and EQS earned in both Mileage Plus and OnePass count toward 2012 status

* Mileage Plus and OnePass elite status miles (EQM) and elite status segments (EQS) earned in 2011 will be combined at the end of the year and count toward your 2012 status in the new program.
* On December 31, 2011, the EQM and EQS will be combined for 2012 elite status. For example: if you have 45,000 EQM with Mileage Plus and 10,000 EQM with OnePass, your balance on December 31 will be 55,000 EQM.


Elite members can earn unlimited Regional Upgrades

* These versatile upgrades can be used on all domestic routes, including transcontinental p.s.® and Hawaii flights. Regional Upgrades are valid for travel within the continental U.S., Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America.
* You will receive two Regional Upgrades as soon as you reach 75,000 EQM or 90 EQS.
* You will earn two more Regional Upgrades at every 25,000 EQM/30 EQS after that in the same calendar year, with no limit to how many you can earn throughout the year.
* This replaces today’s system, where only 1K members can earn up to eight per year.



Updates to 1K® qualification

* The number of EQS needed in 2011 to qualify for 2012 1K status is now 120.
* The number of EQM needed to qualify remains at 100,000.

Receive Systemwide Upgrades at 100,000 EQM /120 EQS

* Systemwide Upgrades are the only complimentary upgrade that offer you the comfort of premium travel to any United or United Express® destination worldwide.
* You will receive six Systemwide Upgrades as soon as you reach 100,000 EQM or 120 EQS.
* You will earn two more Systemwide Upgrades at every 50,000 EQM/60 EQS after that in the same calendar year, with no limit to how many you can earn throughout the year.


2012 updates to note

By mid-2012, Premier Executive members who earn 75,000 EQM or 90 EQS will have upgrade priority

* Premier Executive members who earned at least 75,000 EQM or 90 EQS in 2011 will be upgraded ahead of other Premier Executive members.
* 1K members will continue to be upgraded ahead of lower elite levels.

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Not trying to shoot the messenger but, I dont see these changes as good when you compare the best of both worlds (UA and CO). Oh well, its not like I'm going to start flying US anytime soon but it still hurts.

1K? :p

UGH -- keeping the UA names which are just absurd. Revenue based tier is not transparent. And the regional upgrades -- between regional upgrades, mileage upgrades, cash upgrades to the masses, the EUA benefit is worthless.

Can't say I am thrilled about the fare class restrictions on the SWU's.

Pardon my ignorance, what are regional upgrades (CR1's)?

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+.

*A Gold?
 

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 :td:

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+

GS qualification
 

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?

Do a search :rolleyes::D

He's asking about existing UA SWUs -- not the CO ones!;)

JEdward
I think you have this backwards. CO should have E+ to offer to the non-elite. You could package TV, baggage and a food item (a certain dollar amount) with the E+ seat and sell it to all at a premium (but less than the sum of the parts). This may very well please CO who seems to be interested in selling just about anything that isn't nailed down. '
Heck, CO already has the elites in their pocket. Why would they want to give the elites even more bennies?

I do not think that any changes are announced to the current order at this time.

Most likely 2012 since CO isn't going to recognize that level until then based on the initial post in this thread.

I hope you're right, but who knows? With so much consolidation in the airline industry where are all those angry, pitchfork-wielding GS's going to? Spirit Airlines? Sun Country? USA 3000?

Really the only U.S. carrier that currently has a more-or-less comparable product to E+ is B6. The only place where B6 competes with a portion of the combined UaCo conglomerate is in NYC, and certainly Smisek et al could easily argue that B6 has had virtually no impact on CO here.

If they deep-six E+ there will be clearly have to be some kind of faux or pseudo-faux benefit. On the low end it could be something as ridiculous as "changing the upgrade priority," which is well-established as a joke anyway. On the high end, they might add a row of FC to the UA Airbuses (which, frankly, I think is doubtful).

Again, the complete, Soviet-level blackout of information on E+ is not a good sign...

Additionally, what will the upgrade order be on CO flights with this new 100k priority? Will flyers with 100k in 2011 take priority, but 100k flyers (1K) in 2010 will still be behind CO plats at 75k?

Great question.^

If they deep-six E+, leisure flyers like myself will find other ways to spend our discretionary income.

What fare class do the RU's book into? If "R" is required then they're not so hot... if any seat up front (like Y-UP) that'd be ok.

Unless I missed something Plat just got knocked down on the upgrade list behind PP, 100,000, buy ups, & mileage upgrades. With upgrades getting harder and harder this makes Platinum the new Plastic.:td: