stimpy

And 100% bonus miles. And earlier domestic upgrades. Don't forget that. But sure, it would be nice to get maybe 2 or 3 SWU's.

cranford

A good solution to a very knotty problem. I am glad they are going to use the old BIS as the yardstick next year. I never understood the logic of the CO method. The award is not Star Alliance Million Miler. It is United Million Miler.

rruaco

Does anyone know the date from which the one-time EQM adjustment will be made?

Will it be 'some time in Q1' when the systems merge? Dec 31? The day of the announcement?

(It makes a difference about where to credit travel on US and some LH fare buckets for the rest of the year.)

wxguy

And waiver of most fees. That's huge.

mauld

Up until 2008 due to company policy I had to fly UA alot, and had racked up over 400,000 BIS miles. After leaving the company, not to mention living within 20 minutes of my CO EWR hub, I stopped flying UA-- and used my UA miles on merchandise. I assume my account has since expired-- am I also correct to assume I am SOL for them adding my UA miles into my CO OP account where I am a 1MM'er with currently 1,618,000 lifetime miles ?
When I enter my UA MP # into the system, I get an 'account not found' message.

UA-NYC

Again, no need to overcomplicate it. MM gives you lifetime status, but it does NOT give you confirmable upgrade instruments. THOSE you actually have to earn by flying. Same holds for CO Infinite Plats who are now 1K for life.

3MM flyer who never flies anymore - 1K status, no instruments
3MM flyer who still flies exactly 100K annually - they get the 6 GPUs and 4 RUs.

GBman

First time post, long time reader (as follows from 6 million+ lifetime BIS miles on assorted carriers, most now gone to the big sky beyond).

I agree with an emerging thread of thought here that, in my words, United has missed a key marketing point for 2MMers. Though getting from 3MM to 4MM to get lifetime Global Services is enticing (and clever), there isn't enough incentive (I think) in the new program to move to the next MM once you've hit 2MM.

Take me (of course). I will finish the year at 1.95MM (BIS). I've looked and there's no way I can get the remaining 50k miles to get lifetime RCC, which like others I have been shooting for. It's in theory a $7.5k or so benefit; would cost maybe $4k in mileage runs to get there in time (but don't have the time even if I wanted to spend the money). Naturally I am disappointed to miss this benefit by 2% of needed miles before cut-off at the end of 2011. (Of course between the EQM gross-up and the combination with CO, I will easily exceed 2MM in the new program in January, but without the RCC.)

Now, is a $7.5k benefit reason enough to have dedicated 1MM to UA over 5-10 years? Not rationally, but consumers are funny and we do things like that. Truthfully, other posters are right: Under the old program I kept going to get to RCC. In the new program, there seems to me enough incentive for many to aim to get from 1MM to 2MM (real upgrade benefits, waived fees, etc. - as long as those goal posts don't move before attaining the extra MM). But in many ways the new 2MM is the old 1MM. Once you're there (at the new 2MM), why aim for 3MM?

I realize there would have been howls if UA had shifted lifetime RCC from 2MM to 3MM, but that would have maintained an incentive for loyal consumer activity. As it is, the lifetime shift from Platinum to 1K - without those magic annual 1K GPUs - just isn't enough IMHO to shoot for from 2MM to 3MM. A slight bump in priority, but if you aren't flying enough in your life at that point to annually earn 1K it's not a huge benefit. And the 4MM GS incentive is too far away for those of us at 2MM to necessarily shoot at.

So, while I admire how UA didn't botch the merged lifetime MM program (and my wife is happy about spouse benefits), I am at 2MM, really left now only with an annual decision of whether my 1K of flying is best spent with UA that year or with someone else. There's nothing at the 3MM benefits level (without the old guaranteed 6 GPUs) I care enough about to inspire rational or irrational devotion over the next MM. On the other hand, if I'd earned the RCC benefit at 2MM, I might have wanted to fly UA to be near the club at airports (again rationally I can pay $50 each club visit - much cheaper than flying millions of miles to have earned free admission - but consumers are weird, or at least I guess I am).

This is only one person's view - anecdote, not data - but it's real. I like UA, and I appreciate the lifetime benefits (just like my 3MM on American), but they haven't given me a reason to aim for the next level and by taking away the RCC they haven't kept me in physical proximity to the airline. E+ may keep me around, but I'm certainly going to experiment.

Sorry to be long-winded. Years of pent-up words.

mre5765

Your redeemable miles will have expired but your account should not have been deleted. You should contact mileage plus to find out what is going on.

Scott wrote,

"The spousal premier benefits will be identical as the member, except they will not include RPUs and GPUs. This spousal benefit will replace the one-time and annual upgrade gifts, and hopefully you’ll agree this is a better deal"

Once again, what are the rpu and gpu benefits that the member gets that the spousal premier does not?


...........

Btw for those complaining that the spousal benefit does you nothing while the annual rpus and RCC for life did, I hear you, but there was no shortage of speculation and warning in the big MMer speculation threads that this would happen. We all knew that the CO way was going to prevail in one form or another. How it ended up is much much better than it could have. I figured I'd be 2p for life, and 2p is a useless tier now.

As it turned out, Scott has said if you have RCC for life by december 31, you will have it grandfathered. So if you don't have it yet, you've one hundred days to go get it.

For my part, I bet that killing myself to get 80k more bis to secure MM would be a waste, and I was right. So now I am flying premium Econ on QF and flat bed business on AF, versus suffering in coua Econ to MEL and India.

nmenaker

@GBman, nice second post!

Yes, I think while the 1MM+ and beyond planning for UA SEEMS to be acceptable to many, I think UACO DID miss out on getting people to continue to push towards a target.

I for example, with 910K BIS UA miles was going to push to get to 1MM possibly by EOY 2011, or early in 2012, thinking that any program changes wouldn't actually be EFFECTIVE till mid-year 2012. I had planned to do a couple SFO to FRA runs (okay, maybe AMS since it was cheaper and upgrade options where better) and possibly SFO SIN via HKG and or SYD. I figured I could get to the threshold at about 2000-3000$ and was worthwhile for me to do.

Now, I'll just crest over the somewhat reduced 1MM while on the ground. My historical EQM's and CO will easily push me over the 1MM threshold.

I have NO incentive to get to 1MM this year at all. UA is doing it for me and since there is NO BENEFIT to hit the 1MM this year - as in grandfather of CR1's annually, or the SWU benefit - which I WOULD have used in conjunction with a most likely higher priced international flight next year, several of them actually, I now will pick what is best for me and carrier preference. I won't really even have an incentive to pick UACO over other carriers that might offer better pricing/service/schedule/flights.

I think the real reason to water down benefits is that there will be MANY new 1MM+ flyers now, now that the gross up with historical EQM is going to occur. The only saving grace is that as a combined airline we'll be "back" to BIS going forward, so there will be a swell, but it will push through and get back to annualized inflows as historical.

I think that IF UACO had decided to do some form of grandfathering till say Mid-2012 or EOY 2012, then there would actually HAVE BEEN a swell of activity as people WOULD continue to push toward targets like 1MM, 2MM and heck even 4MM.

Does anyone see any incentive or benefit for a 910K flyer to try and push towards 1MM prior to 2011 EOY or mid-2012? Certainly, the flyer who is currently at 1.95M should consider the benefit of the actual grandfathering of the RCC benefit for 2MM. IF this is ALSO A benefit for the spousal benefit, so spouse gets 2MM status AND LIFETIME RCC, then that would certainly IMHO be a solid benefit to reach towards.

By taking away the upper level 2MM, 3MM benefits and even many of the 1MM benefits, UACO is acting sort of like a health care insurance company.

We'll take your young, because they don't complain and we don't have to give them much of anything in return for their cash.

We'll take your 24-50 year olds, since the premiums they pay are pretty high and comparatively we don't have to pay out more than we need take in..

But, while we WILL take your older seniors, retirees over 55+ (the 1MM, 2MM flyers in this case) we really are going to water down their benefits since we know we don't get much revenue from them and don't want to benefits to overwhelm our proceeds from them...

I think UA finally decided that the 1MM+ and above flyer was either a WHALE who ACTUALLY was still flying 100K+ a year, and would therefore be getting their appropriate benefits from FLYING, but that the 1MM+ flyer who had simply been doing this for decades was actually getting MORE FROM the benefit than they were continue to contribute.

Sort of s..ks, but that is the way the these models are going.

UA-NYC

All he's saying is, REGARDLESS of your MM level, IF you're at a higher level (say you're a MM but flew enough to get 0P/1K), your spouse will be matched to that level (and any subsequent year you're at that level), but WILL NOT get the same instruments you earned by flying to get to that level.

3MM / Infinite Plats will NOT get annual GPUs just for being at that level - they have to fly to earn them. Lifetime status is now fully detached from ANY annual upgrade instrument gifts going forward - you can only get GPUs / RPUs via annual EQM earning.

Somebody correct me if I'm off base here, but I don't think so.

UA_Flyer

How does UA's revised MM level benefits compare to industry practice?

BDLORD

Let's start a letter writing campaign then or snail mail.
Maybe someone with excellent writing skills come up with a template we can all use?
I suggest we ask for the CR1's back and that UA MM at least get Platinum status.
The main reason I see for the devaluation is that CO gave away those EQM's while us UA fliers have sore a$$es from BIS miles.
Thanks

I know on AA any miles count towards MM status.

GoingAway

Ending this year and doesn't answer the question as to what benefits that MM status gives you

joanek

So far, no. I asked UA liaison Scott after first round of answers (in the other thread), but he's not responded. I'd love to know my magic number before booking any further 2012 travel, too.

GoingAway

I thought it was pretty clear that it was in Q1 12, but there wasn't a specific date they were willing to publish.