The new benefit chart says “better availability for Saver Awards in economy” for all tiers, and “better availability for Saver Awards in all cabins” for PPlat and 1k.

Is this new? I know there was extra award inventory for 1Ks , but I don't remember it for any of the other levels.

so these are the 12 good news portions.....so when does the rest come out, cause I think there building it up just to let us down when they release the rest.

overall I give this program a 75% yes. bad for 100%rdm at 1p+ and no booking E+ for 2p's I think UA will lose lots of 2p's and a bunch of 1p's, but kept the 1k and GS people.

Massive Devaluation
 

This is a massive Devaluation for Gold (1P) and Silver (2P).

Actually, it is fully spelled out in the OP (bold added).

Big dissapointment from me. I love UA, but the idea of giving 2P's the shaft really hurts.

He's going to create the 24 before flight mad dash to checkin that WN has. What's the point of giving the companion access to the seats if their are no more two together?

Scare everyone on revenenue then everything else looks better

Economy+ seating: Silver vs paid?
 

Who gets E+ seating priority? Silver or paid E+? If it is paid E+ at time of booking vs Silver at checkin, then paid E+ is better than elite status.

As are most things...this is a YMMV situation. For me personally, these changes are a major problem. I was shooting to requalify for 1P based solely on the fact that 1P would get 100% mileage bonus and because award availability for my travel patterns has been very good. I had already accepted that I wouldn't get to sit in the front much next year...

Now I'm being told that in 3 months, I will begin collecting only 50% mileage bonuses and maybe 75% (I can probably make Premier Plat if I make a few adjustments) while I fly mostly in the back of CO planes that have no E+...and award availability has recently become tighter on top of that.

In thinking about attempting to qualify for 1k in 2012, I am worried about the new upgrade priority, which would likely mean that even as a 1k on mostly cheap economy fares for business, I would not get to sit in the front very often, earn SWUs that are fare restricted, and be subject to uncertain award availability.

The only points of interest would then be potentially award availability, and the continued 100% mileage bonus.

It certainly doesn't make sense for me to ditch AA EXP to secure UA 1k (although in some years, I will be able to get both), so I now have to consider the following scenarios:

- Do all my flying on AA
- Emphasize making EXP on AA and try to qualify for 1k
- Emphasize making EXP on AA and move to DL as secondary carrier

Interesting times...

This is rubbish.

Explorer Card
 

What does this mean?

"Additional travel benefit with the MileagePlus Explorer Card.
Beginning in early 2012, Premier members who hold the MileagePlus Explorer Card will be eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades when flying on eligible economy-class award tickets on United."

Bolding mine.

Aren't Premier members already eligible? Is Premier something different than Silver?

EDITED: I missed the part about Award Tickets. So if you are on a Y award and have the card you are upgrade eligible.

Thanks for the update.

As a consistent 1K, these changes (or mostly the lack of substantial changes) are ^ :-: for me.

Really love being able to use RPUs (going to be a while before I stop thinking of these as CR1s) on the BF flights EWR-HI and IAH-HI. Sure as heck beats slumming it up front on the ghetto bird out and back. ;)

All "paid" upgrades via instruments prioritized over UDU (err... I mean CPU) regardless of status will hurt domestic fliers who relied mostly on UDU/EUA, but I can't really argue with it. It will help when sponsoring upgrades for non-status companions, so it'll go both ways.

The lower elite bonus also hurts, but as long as the miles required for travel doesn't increase as well anytime soon, it will benefit the higher tiers.

4 paid flights instead of a revenue requirement is not too bad either.

It's pretty much exactly the way it used to be with e-500s, and restores the value to RPU and GPU that was lost when UDU was introduced.

Losing access to E+ at booking as a 2P is a pretty harsh change as is the lower checked bag allowance. :td::td::td:

I have a similar question. Who gets the upgrade if we assume there is only one upgrade seat, one Silver (the 3p??), and one explorer card holder. I guess with the new changes to E+ also assume that all those seats are paid occupied.

I tweeted this at UA, so they will probably get back to me before changes go into effect for 2013 ;)

Not on award tickets.

Since status is part of the waitlist ordering, it should be pretty straightforward.