xFF

Exactly. Priority boarding, the overhead actually above your seat, some of the things you were used to when you were a good, paying customer. The Premier security line. And the fact that *G really does mean something in a lot of places. Those are the kind of things that will have made it worthwhile in a time that will seem to have arrived much faster than many realize.

cranford

in the dark days, a lot of employees lost their pensions in numerous companies, and the dark days are here again...beggars can't be choosers, despite what some european citizens hope for... dead lucky the whole thing hasnt gone down the plughole of life.
personally i think they've done extremely well to sort it out...now we just have to hope the whole thing wasnt a pipe dream, like the welfare state, or universal health care

oenophilist

I think you are missing a couple biggies for me, particularly related to *A gold.

14. Priority check-in, including at *A partners. This is HUGE for me.
15. Access to *A partner lounges. Another massive benefit, especially when there are irrops and you need to talk to a rep from the partner company quickly.
16. Priority baggage. This is hit or miss, because half the time they don't pay attention to the priority. But just two weeks ago I was able to avoid a 6 hour layover on an international connection because my bags came out first in customs, and I was able to get onto an earlier flight. ^
17. Additional baggage allowance on UA/CO and *A carriers. Another HUGE one here. I recall a flight from South Africa, where the person in front of me was arguing with the check-in desk about having to pay addition for their extra bag. And the cost was substantial. They took one look at my *A gold status and didn't hesitate to take on my additional baggage at no charge.
18. Overall treatment from *A carriers. I have a friend that works for TAM, and the view there is that *A Gold travelers should always be treated better than the rest. I've had upgrades, better service, etc. as a result of being *A Gold.

All of these are what I am looking forward to without having to worry about whether I make an additional trip or two to cross the 1P barrier. I'll agree that the 50% reduction in bonus hurts, and the other big one that I don't like is the lack of access to additional saver for F/C, which is where I use most of my reward redemption.

Thunderroad

I'm confused by the part I've bolded, especially whether "higher tier" means higher lifetime tier or higher annual tier. I think that I will be over 2MM after the EQMs are added. This will make me a lifetime Premier Platinum. I am flying enough this year to make 1K again for 2012. My question: Does this mean that my wife, who otherwise would be Premier Gold, will be Premier Platinum (my lifetime tier) in 2012? Or will she be 1K (my annual tier)?

I saw at least a couple of questions to this effect earlier in the thread, but having looked through numerous (but not all) pages I haven't seen an answer.

Thanks for any clarification.

Lurch

The way it works now at One Pass is that the spouse or partner matches whatever status the primary member has. I assume it ould be the same.

Dub

I understand this sentiment, but I like gravy! All kidding aside, the spousal benefit is useless to me and I want UA to reconsider and make it spousal status OR annual upgrades. Guess I will have to write to them. Again.

skj

I don't know of any fare code or situation where a UA flyer got less than 1 mile credit toward MM status for 1 mile BIS on UA ticket/UA metal. For CO flyers, it was a distinct possibility they only received 1/2 mile credit (EQM under CO's scheme) per BIS mile, depending on fare basis and where the ticket was purchased. It's great for UA flyers (and with more than 1.2 million BIS miles on UA, I'm one of them) to get this one time upward adjustment, but I find it ironic that there may be CO flyers who will be credited with fewer EQMs than actual BIS miles (and I believe I fall in this category, too) when the numbers are combined. I think it's unfortunate the new airline appears to be unwilling to offer the CO flyers even the baseline of 1 mile BIS equals 1 mile toward MM status.

hockey7711

Optimally it would be great if you can choose which you want from year to year.

WineCountryUA

While not quite the same, in the TED days UA flights did not receive 500 mile mins -- beleive once the 500 mile mins were created, all CO flights were covered.

I sure there are other inequalities, such as
The earning for some partners were different depending on if credited to MP or OP
or
When CO / UA were in different alliances, such as an UA flyer on NW got no credit but a CO flyer did, and there are examples from the CO side.

Considering all of these as second order effects, the new proposal has done a reasonable job of the first order effects (the BIS approach of UA versus the EQM approach of CO). While adjusting some of the second order effects might make this "fairer" (a subjective measure) for some elites, the proposed solution is a good balance in addressing the larger issues and the amount of effort UA/CO need to do to "adjust" the past program differences.

TallTexan

All, I've waded through this thread carefully over the last few days, and just want to validate something. I will end this year with at least 980K lifetime CO miles, and could possibly get to 1MM. I had previously thought I'd need to work this carefully, but it now appears to me there is NO REASON for me to stretch (mileage run, etc.) for the 1MM goal this calendar year.

Am I missing ANYTHING in this conclusion?

I will hit it next year easily, even without my whopping ~3,500 lifetimes miles on UA classic.

WineCountryUA

Assuming your status in 2012 is equal to or better then Gold/1P and the spousal benefit in 2012 is of no value to you (or did CO provide that mid-year?), then your conclusion is probably OK.

nor4

I agree. I just sent UA an email asking that this option be provided. I suggest anybody interested in this also write them. They are actually interested in feedback, so they say.

blueman2

+1 ^

That was in 1985 after the strike in May of that year. I recall it well! But I also recall that it was just RDM, not EQM. Of course, the concept of EQM did not even exist back then. Everything was just BIS or RDM.

JetAway

When did United start using EQM?

golfingboy

Yes, but in 2012 the # of GSes traveling in a given day will undoubtedly be 50-75% higher than 2011 and this new program will probably be responsible for 5-10% of that... The impact won't be huge by any means, but it will have a subtle impact and it will be hard for UA to differentiate between the actual earned GS customers and the "given" GS customers.

Don't get me wrong, by earning GS status you do deserve to have your significant other to have GS status, I am just a little concerned about how they will PROTECT the exclusivity of the program.