2013 MileagePlus - how should it look?
 

The long thread about the changes in boarding priority has me thinking about what it means to be a "premium" or "elite" member. I think the current structure tries too hard to make everyone feel special - sort of like those end-of-year awards that many schools give out where every kid gets a trophy.

Here is how I think the next iteration of MileagePlus should look:

Gold, 60,000 miles
Sorry, but flying less than this doesn't make you "elite". The current Silver and Gold categories are like winning Miss Congeniality. We applaud your efforts, now get the hell off the stage. These are like B and B+ students. Great job, but no Dean's List for you.
Flying one round trip per year to HKG on an unrestricted ticket doesn't make you elite.
I see many on this board refer to themselves as being among United's "best" customers. Not true. Some of these people are among United's "better than average" customers.
Flying 60,000 miles is an achievement that should be recognized.

Platinum, 80,000 miles
Even better. Keep working, and you might make...

100K, 100,000 miles
Doesn't "1K" mean "1 thousand"? Doesn't "100K" mean "100 thousand"?

Global Services, 200,000 miles
The current GS is like the Skull and Crossbones of United. Why so secret? Let's define the criteria and give customers something concrete to work towards.

I don't address what I think should be the perks of each level, but I would hope that a more rigorous structure would allow those truly "frequent" flyers to have a better shot at winning hard-earned upgrades, boarding priority, etc.

200,000 miles is low. Many people get 200,000 miles and don't get GS. Heck -- a few fly 400,000 miles and don't get GS (as reported for this year's qual). It's more based on spend. You could fly all on mileage runs and get to 200,000 miles with only $6-8k while many GS people spend atleast $30-40k / year.

one thing that I wouldnt mind seeing is increasing the segments required on United metal or at least putting in a mileage component from the current four segments.

25/50/75/100 is gonna stay unless the competition makes a move as well.

Another thing I would also like to see is that the mileage go to the entity that is actually paying for the ticket, and not the pax flying, to be used at their discretion. But that would be nearly impossible to implement.

Those levels are so arbitrary, like, "hey, let's just increase the requirements a little from the current while getting rid of the lowest level! Brilliant!"

You need the lowest level to give low to moderate flyers an incentive to stay with united. They won't otherwise, and airlines realize that. I wouldnt be surprised of silvers made up half of the elite ranks.

I do think it would be interesting if they put in some sort of a spend component, liked a tiered spend benefit, apart from the mileage requirements. They would have to be fairly high, though, like minimum $15-20k or something.

Why 60 and not 50 as an "achievement"? I'd argue that a one-time unrestricted fare to HKG is more valuable to the company than 6 $300 transcon rt'd to get silver. ITs not like silver is worth that much.

Remember the program is a lot more about psychology than actual benefits. They want the next incremental level to be close enough to motivate people to fly. Tons of people are willing to do a run just to get silver. That's lots of revenue left on the table at little expense. They don't give silvers anything more than GM's with a credit card except the 25% bonus, and day-of-departure E+ (and the very occasional upgrade after everyone else got theirs) which doesn't amount to much at that level of flying.

what you have failed to recognize is that by eliminating <60k flyers from being 'elite' you are really only eliminating this group as it currently exists from the benefits you refer to such as upgrades, you are not reducing the overall FF population in a meaningful way. if the upgrade process works as advertised, no flyer >60k miiles would realize any benefit from your new system, because the queue of people ahead of them would be the exact same length, it would just be stratifed differently. in other words, if this system was adopted and folks played by it with the same travel patterns they do in the current system, the only people whose upgrade frequency would change are the <60k flyers, going from low percentage upgrades to 0%. upgrade benefits for everyone else would be unchanged.

the only way to meaninfully thin the ranks is by making the program revenue driven, or eliminating fares that are conducive to mileage running. i would argue that the latter would have a minimal effect since i believe that only 1 in ~10 1Ks earns their status with MR as a large component of their PQM earnings. sure, on FT the frequency is probably 6/10 but far from every 1K is on FT.

I would be all for an entirely spent based system.
But it has to be fair and transparent and not what seems to be going on with GS qualification this year.

Curious as to why you feel this way? Do you advocate the same for hotel and rental car points?

In most cases, anyone here who is advocating for a spend-based system does not spend their own money. If you want a spend based system, lets reward those who actually spend!

Respect to those who earn 1K/GS on their own (or their own business's) dime. Those who fly on someone else's dime - you would be nowhere if the rewards actually went to who pays for the ticket.

I would imagine for hotels it would be much easier to implement than an airline scheme.

Explorer card holders don't get the Star Alliance orange tag on their checked bags.

And, Silvers are still technically eligible for CPUs. I know. I have gotten upgraded before.

If we're going to start making changes like you suggest, let's make the entire program based on annual spend.

I got to Silver in six months on my own dime. I flew one transcons, three midcons, and a lot of flights east of the Mississippi. Does that count?

Bonus points if you get someone who paid most - but not all - of the monthly balance and who continues to spend. Then you get transaction fees *and* interest.

Indeed. When i was still silver last year, I got upgraded on NRT to IAD in August due to a overbook in Y. And Tou get before GMs in case of an IRROP and fighting for the standby list.

and are you advocating for a spend based system??
No.
The only ones who are, do not pay for their tickets.

So if we are going to implement spend based status, then lets reward the entity that is actually behind the spend!