2015 MileagePlus Change: New Partner Earnings Effective March 1, 2015
 

The new partner earnings have been published.

As many of us expected, the earnings for everything below full fare economy have been gutted - On the JVs, it's 50% for deep discount, 75% for discount (and going as low as 25% on some fares/carriers, such as an NH K).

It's not clear whether there's a premier bonus or 500 mile minimum, the web page is ambiguous whether those perks apply to the new scheme. I personally expect the worst, but will be delighted to be wrong on this point.

Source, link? I'm having trouble finding it on the UA site.

http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/Mark...spx?itemid=304

You need to click on each individual airline to see the earnings scheme. They have pre-March 1, 2015 rates and post-March 1, 2015 rates.

Never mind, I'm seeing it now. Right in front of my face on the airline partner page. Table is just hidden by default.

From the other thread my initial observations:

Well, the new partner rates have been published. Big devaluation if you do not purchase 016 tickets but still get 100% PQM with 500 mile minimum. I was looking at SK, LH and ANA.

Also, there seems to be no 500 minimum for earned miles and it is unclear how the old 100% miles for 1K (etc.) applies in the future on ANA and LH. It is still listed but not clear if it refers to the old earnings only. That would be an additional massive devaluation if you do not book 016.

Here is an example on SK if you buy a one way ARN-CPH. Today you would earn 500 miles (distance 380 miles).

A one way ticket example in mid-range pricing where I estimate ticket price excluding airport fees (incl YQ) is $160 and books in W. This will earn only 50% or 190 miles if booked from SK. As 016 then you would earn 1760 miles as 1K, which is quite an upgrade. With SK's own program they recently cut back earnings for deep discount tickets especially intra-Scandinavia but this W fare is not deep discount (it is in UA's definition) and would earn 500 points.

Incidentally the cheapest ticket on this route is about $90 and would still give you 990 miles as a 1K, which is double the old earnings if booked as 016.

Buying intra-Europe as 016 on SK seems to work fine and I have done it mostly for convenience. However, if you book transatlantic then 016 is not possible because they are not part of the recent JV. Then you get really punished from an earnings perspective.

p.s. If you book an SK flight as 016 how much commission does UA earn? Let's consider the cheapest ARN-CPH $90 ticket where the base fare is $50 and taxes $20 and YQ another $20.

Grounds are not too firm for optimism about the post merger United's direction. Where's the "UA Insider" trumpeting another Change I Know I Will Like?

For those entertained/saddened by United's lockstep mimicry of Delta actions, this announcement @ 32 days before conversion, Delta's (according to remarks on this website) 30.

Yeah, it's surprising UA Insider was on point with trumpeting the NA front cabin food changes, but seemed to miss this one entirely. :p

I guess the inevitable question from some FT poster will be:

Will this mean a better award availability for the future?

(BWAHAhahahaha)

(Unless UA and their buddy Chase can really tighten up the way one can earn mileage, like AMEX granting only one sign up bonus, lifetime. Even then, I'm pessimistic).

Interesting.... Not terrible but not great either.

IT doesn't say if the new non-016 earnings get the elite bonus applied to the miles earned or not.

hey... it's 30 days until this takes effect... didnt another airline, who United copied everything about this new program, put out their devalued chart ~30 days before as well?

and AC/LH goes down to peanuts except for YBMH fares....

coffin, meat final nail.

That's what I was most interested in as well. It looks like it should be applicable since I see no wording otherwise...

*laugh* This is actually pretty hilarious.

I just added up my flying for the last 90 days, and compared it to the new post-3/1 earning tables. Only 1 of my tix was on 016 stock.

I then compared my credit card bill for that same 90 days to the earnings I would have had on those flights.

I earned credit card points (including airline ticket purchases) at a rate of 1.6x the mileage I would have actually earned by flying those itins. (My new earnings would have been 42,600 MP miles, while my credit card earned just over 68k points!)

So it changes the nature of the game yet again. It's actually now more beneficial to NOT fly UA/*A than to fly them, if awards are your goal. Kayak or direct to OW, and then transfer your credit card points to the program of your choice!

That's not my interpretation. My read was that since the 016 table explicitly breaks down the elite bonus, the non-mention in the non-016 table means that the elite bonus does NOT apply. Or perhaps I've just been trained by UA to interpret every change negatively...


Also, can't help but notice additional TK economy classes getting dinged (yet again).