reezekeys

Nice thread. I found my way here looking into this issue as I'm part of a band that travels almost exclusively on United so here's my .02. A few of us got demoted from Platinum to Gold and we just got back from our first gig where we were surprised to find the change in # of bags allowed. Last year we were all Platinum so the issue never came up and I guess the band's travel agent missed the announcement of the change. I had a good reason to miss it since I'm just one of the musicians and not in charge of booking flights!

We travel as a group and pool our luggage to get our equipment to our gigs – so everybody was at three bags. I once asked my boss what happens when we get a gig in a place United doesn't fly to, and he told me "we don't take the gig." That's how the math is done. We're not the Rolling Stones – gigs pay a certain amount and we need to get to them, pay for hotels and local transportation, AND have enough left over to put a little food on the table and make the mortgage.

It's interesting how many here are "meh" since this change doesn't affect them – so no big deal, right? Our band probably spends $50 – $75K a year on United tickets and this most certainly does affect us. Especially when combined with the change in how PQMs are calculated. Is it not harder to maintain Platinum now?

Not really a rant, just another point of view maybe not that obvious to some here. It really does seem like United is slowly chipping away at the perks we were used to having. Of course I can understand, them struggling with those high fuel costs sapping their bottom line...

trekwars2000

reezekeys, welcome to FT.

I use 70 lbs max way more than 3 bags, however, years ago when I was moving my fiancee to Vegas from LA I'd fly every weekend and check 200 lbs of her stuff to my home (3 bags at 70 lbs). While I haven't used it much sense it was really nice then.

For everyone it will affect them differently I guess.