CO_Nonrev_elite

The only difference I can see is the 6 GPU. Domestic upgrades are now more or less a fallacy. So you are not really getting them as a 1K or a Platinum member. You earn marginally more miles as a 1K, but you are talking about 25% of less than 25,000 miles (difference between between Platinum and 1K qualification).

Tchiowa

Completely agree.

milypan

Agree. One minor correction: in the previous system you were earning 14% more redeemable miles as a 1K (2x multiplier vs 1.75x multiplier). In the new revenue-based system you are earning 22% more redeemable miles as a 1K (11x revenue multiplier vs 9x revenue multiplier). Neither difference is that great.

sogboulder

I largely agree, although my domestic upgrade rate seems to be better than most (about 60%, actually). GPUs and marginally better IRROPS treatment (though not always). They're a bit nicer to me on the phone and at check-in, too.

However, they seem to lose my bags more often as a 1k than as a Pt. ;-)

IAH-OIL-TRASH

...and 2 RPUs

PV_Premier

progressively as the program continues its death spiral you will give up less and less by not achieving 1K. already GPU and RPU are becoming harder to confirm at booking, and the mileage difference is not that great nor is the upgrade rate. one other tangible benefit that i used a couple times as a 1K was the M-UP, whereas IIRC with plat and below it's only YB-UPs. that being said, PN space is also tighter than in days past. one can also expect that 1K will be more shielded from other negative changes than plat for a longer period of time. for instance i could see them dropping no award change/redeposit fees for plat, but i think it will be at least a year or two before they do the same to 1K.

this was my first and last year as 1K. i did manage to use all my instruments but 3 of my 6 GPU were not used directly by me, nor were 2 of my 4 RPU.

mamabear

Thanks all. You've confirmed my suspicions.

I only really care about upgrades.

If I traveled any other route than SFO-NYC I might be concerned about losing upgrades, but upgrades are just a fairy tale for me anyway. Lots of elites, lots of paid first on my hub to hub route (SFO-EWR) or first leg of international business travel (SFO-JFK).

I don't care about earning more miles. After traveling for business every week, leisure travel is pretty much the last thing I want to do.

It was nice to take my husband and kids to Hawaii last summer but that's all I've gotten out of the frequent traveler deal so far other than exhaustion, swollen feet and a lot of hassle.

CO_Nonrev_elite

The problem with upgrading now is this. Up until the last 18 months or so, "Most" 1K flyers could reasonably assume to get upgraded with regularity on most routes other than some select (PS, Some hub to hubs on small planes etc). I got pretty comfortable over the last 12 years getting an upgrade rate of roughly 90% on domestic flights. I continued to fly Continental and United loyally because of the perks that the status brought me with upgrades. With that, of course you would miss some upgrades, but most of the time you'd get them

These days, upgrades are anything but guaranteed, and from my personal experience are now far from the the norm. I was upgraded less than 10% this year as a 1K flying the same route patterns that I have flown for the last 12 years.

With that, I consistently saw the upgrades being sold to more or less the lowest bidder.. Aside from obviously being disappointed to not getting the upgrades I used to get, it is kind of a slap in the face to your best customers to sell the upgrade to absolutely anyone ($99 offer gets rejected, so they drop it to $79, then to $59, then to $39, then to $29) in front of your face while 63 revenue frequent flying passengers of your loyalty program on the upgrade list get passed over.

Please be aware that in your 60% success rate this year, that in every single one of those cases, United tried hard to sell those upgrades to everyone else, and only then after the remaining customers refused to by the cheap upgrade did you get it.

The company values any dollar today over rewarding loyalty. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and only this year did I start to reward them by flying more on other carriers than United. I still flew enough for 1K, but United lost a high amount of my revenue and a high amount of our teams revenue.

TonyBurr

Smisek and his New United do not understand the word LOYALTY.

jpsj

Totally Agree!

The company values any dollar today over rewarding loyalty. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and only this year did I start to reward them by flying more on other carriers than United. I still flew enough for 1K, but United lost a high amount of my revenue and a high amount of our teams revenue.

sogboulder

I'm quite aware of that, and I share your sentiments. Upgrades are just a wee bit easier to obtain out of DEN than, say, SFO - but availability has still declined quite a bit due to TODs.

Everest_762

Sorry to say I am in agreement with all of the above. As a British expat, I was really excited about the prospect of the 6 GPUs but in reality I have found them very hard to spend. My regular run ORD<>OKC yields a pretty high upgrade hit rate, which then sharply diminishes when I move to a busier route e.g. ORD<>IAH. The only thing I will add is that I think, if I call (which usually only occurs in a 'distress situation' [i.e. I have, or am about to, miss a flight]) I believe I am routed to a dedicated 1K desk and those folks are always extremely helpful... often rebooking me with no issues, or charges... which is great.

docbert

What nobody can tell you is what the upgrade situation will be like next year.

It seems extremely likely that there will be less 1K's next year due to the spend requirements if nothing else. One would hope that this will lead to increased upgrade changes for those that do meet the requirements.

Only time will tell if it's a significant difference, or too small to make any real difference.

StingWest

I actually don't have a problem with the company valuing incremental upgrade revenue over giving free upgrades because of loyalty. It's when they treat high revenue customers worse than kettles by pricing upgrades differently depending on who you are. I'm quite willing to pay something for an upgrade - it's worth it to me! So (a) get rid of the failed CPU system, (b) bring back the 500 mile coupons ($50 per 500 miles as before), and (c) don't offer TOD upgrades at the gate until you've upgraded the people who have paid with coupons.

Catbert10

The reduction of 1Ks only matters if 1Ks are the only people ahead of you in the upgrade line. They aren't. There are lots of people willing to pay the (T,H)ODs to buy up to first. That group isn't getting thinned out.