Change in accrual of SAA miles on MP!
 

I'm a South African who travels to the US twice a year for school and has some supplementary travel in between (~70% of my travel is on SAA). When I started up school in the Northeast 3 years ago I signed up with OnePass instead of SA's Voyager, because I could earn 100% EQMs on all flights with OnePass, but usually only 50% on Voyager on SA's own flights (I fly exclusively in economy).

In that first year I managed to reach Gold in OnePass with the careful planning of just two flights between the US and CPT and a third CPT-CDG roundtrip. My victory was short lived when the merger arrived, because MP rules prevailed and on MP, discount economy earned 50% on SA flights, however ordinary economy earned 150% EQMs! This compensated somewhat for the occasional discount fare. I could manage with this change and careful planning.

Now MP seems to have changed their accrual with SA, to 100% on non-discount economy fares, maintaining the 50% on discounted fares.

I've already lost all status on UA this year because my EQM balance was ~43,000 in 2012, but I did not make the new 4 segment requirement. No soft landing to Silver even :(

I thought I could fix things this year, but with the new earnings change, I may not make status again. I don't know where else to go, because Voyager isn't any better (earns poorly where MP doesn't, like on LH, AC).

I yearn for the days of OnePass. My wings have quite definitively been clipped!

Thank you MP.

I think the change has more to do with SAA (not wanting to pay up for the miles, as evidenced by even their own program not giving 100%) than United. I, too, enjoyed the 150% MP bonus, and will now most likely route via Brussels on to Brussels Airlines when I travel to West Africa (rather than SAA IAD-DKR).

That said, you could always switch over to Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Swiss via Zurich or Turkish via IST (for Star), Delta via Atlanta or KLM via AMS or AF via CDG (for Skyteam). Will definitely add some time to your flights (with the exception of Delta), but for once 1 or 2 times per year may be worth it. Beware the super low buckets on the Star partners.

At least some of the UA credit cards waive the 4 segments rule. I don't know if any of them with reasonable fees do that, but it might be worth checking...

Not just for SAA - this is a change across the board back to the pre-merger earning levels for the full fare classes. There is a long thread somewhere already discussing this - including if you had booked before they made the change that they will give you the bonus. I can never seem to find that thread - maybe someone else has a link?