sanfran8080

I am a lifetime 1k (platinum with CO). I was one of the lucky few that received it back in the 90's with CO. Was sitting next to a soon to be retired executive and he heard CO awarding those back in the day. We both we wondering how many people are still around that received Lifetime 1K status.My guess is there aren't that many since we all seem to be dying off. If anyone knows exactly I'd love to know.
Keep flying my friends.

sbm12

A few years back the number of lifetime platinum elites from the old CO program was pegged around 5,000 with fewer traveling in any given year. I would assume the number is lower today. Details are in the FAQ thread in the CO sub-forum.

wxguy

I'm one. Infinite Elite Platinum from the CO days, but I also have been UA 1K for at least 10 years (and GS for the past three). And my Lifetime UA Club membership dates all the way back to a Lifetime EA Ionsosphere Club membership I bought with (I think) 100K miles. It morphed into a Lifetime CO Pres Club then UA Red Carpet Club then UA Club.

iahphx

Are there still other CO "infinite elites" flying UA these days? My wife and I have the lifetime 1K status, but I must say that the benefits have become underwhelming. I don't really have any loyalty to the airline anymore. The "complimentary upgrades" have become something of a joke: the airline tries its hardest these days to make sure that the FC cabin is filled before processing any "free" 1K upgrades: it's not unusual for us to be in the teens on the waitlist. The double miles for flying (it used to be 125% bonus) is essentially ending this month. No free domestic lounge access, which isn't much of a loss because the United Club's offerings are now pretty terrible. The only real flying benefit is access to Economy Plus and priority boarding: ridiculously modest benefits, but important when you see how badly the Zone 5 folks have it when heading toward the back of the plane. I also take advantage of the ability to change/cancel Star Alliance award reservations without fees, using miles I mostly accumulate on the Chase cards.

Oh, well. When I earned this status in the early '90s, the aviation world was a different place. The airline is now a lot larger, but the service is a lot smaller.

SS255

It's too bad that you didn't take advantage of buying a lifetime Presidents Club membership back when you were earning your CO Infinite Elite status. I can recall some posts a while back in another thread that the lifetime memberships cost around what an annual membership costs today.

mkr

Yes, there are still active Lifetime 1K elites around left over from Continental from the 90s (they were Lifetime Platinum, CO's top tier and became Lifetime 1K with the merger). Those were diehard CO flyers who kept flying CO during the dark days of CO's bankruptcy and among those who helped to keep the airline afloat and eventually emerge from the bankruptcy caused by Lorenzo's actions. All those older CO flyers helped to ensure that there even was a FF program to remain after the bankruptcy. There are many of those former Continental Lifetime 1K elites living in the Houston and NY areas.

Yes, MP has been greatly devalued. CPUs are varied, depending upon route, time of day, day of week. I have the opportunity to pretty much pick my travel times most of the time, so I have learned how to find flights where my CPU chances are great, so my CPU rate is high.

The Reward mileage formula change may or may not be better for you as a 1K, depending upon the route flown. Remember the former free First Class Lounge at IAH? (Nostalgia) You still get free SDCs as a 1K, free Reward redeposit, 3 free suitcases, and Group 1 boarding.

What is sad is that UA added all these fees for what used to be free, and then gave it to 1Ks to make them think they were perks, while taking away the good perks. (Luggage used to be no fees, redepositing rewards no fees, etc., etc.)

According to posts in this Forum, and according to several colleagues and persons with whom I am acquainted, the devaluation of MP, poor customer service, and other problems with UA is what is causing what seems to be a substantial number of former UA customers to go to other carriers.

What we need is someone like Gordon Bethune who saved Continental because he understood loyalty to employees and loyalty to customers. Good employee morale helped with good customer service. Continental used to have giveaways for fun for customers and lots of rewards for employees. The crowd running UA today has no idea. And to those who say Smisek learned under Bethune, I say whatever he learned from Gordon Bethune he either forgot or never listened. Bethune was an airlines person who came from the operations side. Smisek has an attorney background.

Anyone could purchase the Lifetime President's Club membership. But whomever you quoted about cost was incorrect.

SanDiego1K

I paid $200-250 (don't remember precisely, but know it was that range) for a lifetime membership for my husband and me. This was for United.

chitownflyer

Wow. even an offer of a lifetime membership today for $4500 would be a great deal.

Old Gold

I bought a lifetime Presidents Club membership when I achieved my CO Infinite (Gold at that time) Elite status, as I recall it was about $1,500 less pro rated credit for my remaining annual membership.

SanDiego1K

Old Gold, how nice to see a post from a FlyerTalk icon. I thought of you when I read this thread. And here you are!

SS255

I paid $4,200 for my lifetime Presidents Club membership in 2010. That was the Platinum rate, which went up to $4,600 right before I locked in the $4,200 rate. I knew that annual fees only go in one direction, and had a gut feeling that UA would stop selling lifetime memberships once the merger closed.

I may have been thinking of the lifetime UC membership back in the day. Or, the cost to convert a lifetime Ionosphere Club membership to a lifetime Presidents Club membership when EA went under. My father was a lifetime Ionosphere Club member, and did not take advantage of the fee to convert to lifetime PC.

wxguy

As I mentioned upthread, my lifetime UC started with a lifetime EA Ionosphere Club membership, bought for 100K EA miles. It converted to lifetime CO President's Club, then lifetime UA Red Carpet Club with each merger, without additional cost.

iahphx

Near the very end of Eastern's existence, they did sell "lifetime" Ionosphere memberships for something like $500. I was living in Miami at the time and was a gold elite (the highest metal at the time) and I remember thinking: "yeah, that's probably a six-month lifetime for the airline."

But through legal wrangling, Lorenzo and CO were forced to honor those memberships and the rest is history. Think of it as a high-risk, low probability bet that paid off. Kind of like buying AA shares for a few cents in bankruptcy a couple years ago, and getting stock in the new, highly profitable airline (it rarely works that way).

Indeed, everyone who earned "Infinite Elite" status with EA and CO is somewhat lucky that there's still an airline, much less one of the largest global carriers in the world. That said, the benefits today are pretty skimpy. It's hard to say whether, overall, we've gotten lucky or unlucky. And, of course, the final pages of the story haven't been written. At least it now looks like our "lifetime memberships" will be for our own lifetimes, and not that of the airline.

mkr

CO survived because of the leadership of Gordon Bethune who was able to motivate CO employees to put out extra effort during the dark days of bankruptcy after Lorenzo. The camaraderie that the employees exhibited came across to customers with excellent customer service (in my experience), and the loyal Elite members kept flying CO during those days.

CO also gave out several extra perks to Elite flyers during those days to encourage their loyalty. For example, I remember that if one flew (I believe 3 roundtrips), one earned a free roundtrip anywhere in the US, Mexico, Canada. This was in addition to the FF miles earned, which one got to keep. There was no limit on the number of free roundtrips earned, but they had to be redeemed within a specified time period. They also had higher qualifications to earn International free trips ( I do not remember the exact #, perhaps it was 6).

There are a few reasons that CO Lifetime Elite status survived the merger with UA (1) There were so few Lifetime Elites that the merging airlines figured that it would not affect costs (2) There were some in CO management who advocated for the Lifetime Elites to be granted 1K lifetime status after the two FF programs merged (those pro-Elite flyers management persons are now gone from the merged airlines) (3) It was worth the effort to keep them as they were proven loyal flyers who could be counted upon to keep flying the merged airlines.

Unfortunately, on the UA side, the persons who were promised certain perks from the MM program got them taken away after the merger.

ContinentalFan

Thanks for this summary. I missed the CO lifetime elite program, as I didn't start flying the airline until '93. I am surprised, but pleased, that the CO life timers were given 1K. It's a step up form the old, OnePass Gold. Though, they did get Platinum when the OP program changed. In any event, 1K is a good move by the new UA.