For those of us for whom chasing Plat each year became a pretty big deal, requiring a lot of careful planning and choosing vacations based as much on distance from home as other reasons... does the recent devaluation of Plat (the fees added to award ticket changes and, worse yet, making the "close in" window 60 days instead of 21) come as a relief? Because now the differences between Gold and Plat have been greatly reduced?

Many of us will never be 1K material. Too many miles, too many dollars. Platinum gave us something we could reach for, with the very tangible benefit of fee-free award ticket travel. The RPUs, for me, where never that big a deal. Boarding Group 1 was nice, but that nice?

I think UA ought to consider doing away with Plat entirely, and just offer the RPUs as a 75k milestone. The biz traveler who could make 1K if he/she really tried... more incentive to do so without Plat as an "accomplishment."

But that's separate from my feeling that it's time to stop chasing a target that's been a real stretch for me and get back to flying without so much careful planning. Not having to worry about flying SFO-ORD-MSN instead of the more-direct SFO-DEN-MSN (flying through ORD nets about 600 additional miles). Being able to try a different airline now & then if the routing and/or timing is better.

So, seriously, this does come as a bit of a relief to me. Perhaps I'm just getting too old for this game, or too sensible. Not likely the latter!

Your thoughts?

Although I'm not Plat, if I were the only way I'd feel "relieved" would be in the sense of this usage:

"The bandits relieved victims of their valuables."

The big "whew!" moments for me were the partner award chart devaluation and the shift to miles-per-dollar flight earnings.

Those two changes have saved me thousands of dollars and lots of planning because I no longer have a particularly strong incentive to book UA vs. other more convenient and more rewarding carriers for longhaul travel.

Never sure if I will make 1K or not each year, but Platinum still has the higher bag allowance and the ability to bring more into E+. Since I rarely change award travel, or even cancel award bookings, I still see the value.

If anything, I wish they would apply the same fees to paid travel. Maybe reward the higher ups with a lower change/cancellation fee. Now one could argue that more 1K's, PP's etc make changes. But I pay less for United Club membership as a 1K, even though I likely consume way more food, drinks, and newspapers than a gold or silver?

Certainly for One Million Milers there's no reason to throw any dollars at UA in order to achieve the few remaining Plat benefits over Gold. Better to burn through the remaining large MP stash many MMs have and spend your travel money on superior products (such as Jet Blue Mint rather than UA ps).

OK, we're treading into the "Is Plat worth it" thread with that, but good point about the higher baggage allowance. While it lasts anyway. My annual trips to France will be $200 more, r/t, since my son and I have two pieces of checked luggage each (no way to reduce the "load" since we bring our folding bikes which fit into a suitcase). He gets one free bag as a nobody/card holder, while I've had three in the past, so between the two of us, we're good.

Certainly you know better than me, but what about finding friends or bike shops in France for your trips that you can borrow or rent something? I'm asking in a serious way, as I will always prefer my Marin over something else, but I also hate taking more than needed. As a bike shop owner, I would think you have enough relationships around the world that you could have a couple of high end bikes waiting for you at the hotel,

After 9 years as 1K and 1mm, I was looking at the prospect of possibly only hitting plat if I pushed. Largely would be for no award fees. I am very relieved I can stop whenever I want. I am at 30keqm now. Might just go OAL.

As a MM-Plat, yeah, I find it relieving that I switched to the club card from the presidential, as earning more miles >> the ability to earn plat.

And as someone who spends a lot of miles, and does a lot of booking-alterations, the fee free changes/redeposits were the biggest draw of Plat. Its certainly not the upgrade priority, or CR1s.

The opposite for me.

I find 75K miles not too difficult to reach, so I've viewed Plat as the safety fall-back if I couldn't make 1K.

Now I'm more incentivized to reach 1K (or, alternatively, to just to bag the whole status thing and focus on accumulating Chase and AMEX points).

I was about to post nearly the same thought.

The drop from 1K to Platinum formerly felt like a gentle decline; now it feels like a precipice.

Really people? No better than Gold now? Precipice? It is 1 fee for change cancel within 60 days. Nothing else has changed. Still get more RDM's than Gold, no change. Still get RPU's, no change. Can still take 8 people into E+ with you, no change. Still get Group 1 boarding, no change. Still get 3 bags free up to 70 lbs, no change. Still ahead of Golds on the upgrade list, no change. Yes, the implementation of a fee for Platinums sucks, but it is still way better than Gold. I would much rather be a Platinum than a Gold.

That's correct. How many PL members actually book award tickets and keep changing them? I have been traveling every month for the past two years but I have only cancelled 3 itineraries (and all within 24 hours). This change is not much of a depreciation IMHO.

My big "whew" moment was when they required minimum spent for 1K.

Your making assumptions about boarding group that may not continue. I certainly wouldn't trust that it will.

And 1 fee for change within 60 days... that, for some of us, is huge, not insignificant. Up until now, it was an awesome perk that you could find saver award inventory, without penalty, in the days just before flying. Especially with International. Saver business, the holy grail of awards, often opens up at the last minute.

Here's my typical workflow, when planning a trip down the road0
No saver Y available, book standard.
When saver Y becomes available (usually 7 days or so out), refund standard award and buy saver.
If saver C becomes available (typically 1-2 days out), refund saver Y and buy saver C.

That used to be free. Add us the fees and you'll see this is pretty serious dollars, especially if there's a chance you might end up changing dates. As long as you're rock-solid 60+ days out, you're good. Rock solid is depending upon UA having the inventory you want (in addition to whatever life throws at you).

Regarding 3 bags, yes, I will miss that once/year. The flying RDMs became insignificant (for me) compared to the miles earned through CC use once RDMs became based on dollar spend on the ticket, even at the plat level.

In a nutshell, you have good reasons to stay on the Platinum (or above) track. For me, no longer worth the effort.