mike2003242

Amen on that! EWR needs to get their act together on their lounge. Thank God for classified and open gate areas!! Other clubs can be get crowded but are at least better than the gate area.

In The 216

I understand that loyalty and, more importantly, the benefits that come with it, are important. I fly every week for work and I am loyal (beholden?) to United because I value the 1K benefits that I receive. I guess my point is that if I was flying in paid J/F international tickets, I don't think the benefits of remaining loyal to a particular program are as pronounced as the economy/lowest ticket flyer.

PPM

Even as a 1K for over 15 years (and a 2MM flyer), I can say there has been a huge erosion of benefits for the top tier flyers. It is absolutely impossible for me to understand how the thousands of dollars that I have spent on United are not valued sufficiently for the use of a GPU or an RPU over someone who is an infrequent flyer and able to upgrade for a fraction of the costs. I do not accept that United has to "make money" and doesn't offer upgrades on competitive routes and does so to credit card holders offered an upgrade at check in. I feel that I've paid the outrageous business and first class fares to fly an airline that is not an international leader in these products--at best it is mediocre. I feel I am justified that my expected return is the ability to use my GPUs and RPUs to compensate for this substandard product. However, now that I cannot confirm an upgrade with a GPU for London in February when the entire business class cabin for all 3 flights between ORD and LHR are completely vacant for the 3 days I'm searching for, I have reached my limit as a 1K with higher than average spending on United (at least $30,000 this year). I am done with United now that I am a lifetime platinum. I will search for international flights with convenient schedules and better service. I can only imagine the outrage if I were a GS and receiving this same treatment.

PsuedoEuropeanGuy

I guess it depends on what you think the most benefits are for loyalty?

Your right that those of us flying in Economy get lots of benefits we don't already have (i.e. the opportunity to upgrade) but those are getting eroded quickly!

I guess your point is that if you pay for J/F then what benefits can an airline get for you? Upgrades? No your already there. Lounges? No your already have it. Free baggage allowance? No your already have it. Is that your point? Fast check in? Already there. Is that your point?

John Aldeborgh

Going back to the OP’s original question, my guess he’d miss GS status when he did fly UA. First off, you have to assume there is a better domestic alternative to UA, where maximum status can be obtained, otherwise any status will be a function of the ticket for that specific flight. This works but it’s expensive and offers no real long run benefits, as with MM status on some airline. For me, based out of BOS, I’m not sure there is a better alternative airline than UA given my typical travel destinations, IMHO.

username

It is interesting reading through the thread. The OP's first post lead me to think that agents are becoming less flexible, likely due to some bean counter wanting them to be strict and not customer friendly. Then some of the posts indicate that is not the case.

UA certainly would not want to risk losing GS customers because some agents don't bend the rules enough while others do.

Lori_Q

To the OP -- I think the status is worthwhile, even though I've never been GS. Early boarding, a dedicated phone line, being first to be reaccommodated during irregular operations, and some free lounge access, all have some value. And you have access to PN upgrades, which 1K & lower-level members do not.

The perks GS members have lost, such as extending status and upgrades to passengers on award tickets from your account, have gone away for everyone. That's more of a program complaint than it is a GS complaint. :-)

As others have mentioned, a lot depends on your individual circumstances. For myself, since I fly regularly, earning 1K for the last 15 years has been wortwhile. My flight experience is usually at least somewhat better than regular passengers' experiences, which improves the quality of my life. Is it better than someone who pays for First Class? Probably not, but paying for FC consistently is not part of my circumstances. :-)

PsuedoEuropeanGuy

You've stated your case very well. Your point being simply that you have been loyal to United, flying a mediocre product , so why can't they treat you nicely.

But I think your not thinking like an MBA. An MBA would argue that they want to be nice to people to attract future travel not reward past travel. I know that doesn't jibe with the world loyalty, but its the way businesses run. Just look at all those businesses that give the new customers discounts (Cable, telephone etc) whilst not allowing their old loyal customers to take up the discount. The amount of times I've seen the worlds "applies only to new customers" ...

halls120

Every time my Verizon contract is up, and they want to extend it at the same rate, I tell them no and demand that they give me a break or I'll go to the competition. Works every time.

Up until 2 years ago I was a 1K flying UA 100-120K miles a year and spending over $10K per year. Now I'm Platinum, and have 75K miles, and I have spent around $6700. I'm done chasing status on any airline, and some of the money I used to leave with UA is going elsewhere.

ani90

These two phrases summarize well the premise of this thread - if OP does not like being a GS I am quite happy to take his status and he can take mine!
Gate almost always more comfortable than the lounge sounds to me like all those claims that a middle seat in a 4 across C cabin is better than any seat on the pmCO C cabin (or a converse claim once posted that a particular seat in E+ was better than a middle C seat). Again I would most happily take your privileged access to the UA club and promise never ever to sit in the gate area again

In The 216

Yes, that is my point in a nutshell.

Artpen100

i agree. To me, as a 1K, I don’t feel particularly loyal. I still choose my flights on convenience and price. If UA did not have the routes I usually fly at competitive prices, I would not fly it so much. I suspect they know that a lot of us are not captured by loyalty but by direct routes.

John Aldeborgh

I, for one, feel the benefits of GS extend well beyond what a paid J or F seat will allow. On the one hand I’ve been stranded in both Denver and SFO on my way to meetings in Asia because 1K flyers weren’t adequately covered during Irregular operations, since being GS (18 months) I’ve seen extra ordinary efforts made to get me to my destination on-time at least 4 or 5 times. A connecting flight held on HKG, a golf cart to get my connection in EWR for another Asian flight and a gate agent holding the door and calling my name as I was racing to make my BOS connection, again at EWR, I was coming in from Asia. My point is this extra effort makes a huge difference for someone who depends on the Airline to get me somewhere I need to be, on time.

spin88

As others noted, I am one of the few ex-GS that still post in the UA forum, bailed starting in 2012, and gave up on UA entirely in 2013. Lack of good CS in IRROPs was the breaking point for me. I have found the IRROPs I get on DL (and far fewer issues) on DL to be better than what I was getting on UA in 2012-13. I understood UA had fixed some of these issues, but evidently not in your case.

This is the heart of it. You are flying United at an outstation, and if you are GS, self evidently are connecting in SFO or EWR. SFO is a weather pit, and as you have noted the lounges are crowded and not so great to begain with (both the Centurion Lounge and the DL SkyClub are heads and tails above any UC at SFO) and is 4 hours out of the way, and EWR is just a CS pit. Only a masochist would fly UA metal ex-SEA. If you were crediting to UA and flying ANA and LH (to Russia and Eastern Europe) I would think it was not a bad deal, but unless you are doing this, and still getting $50K+ on UA metal, you are either (a) doing a long flight to EWR in the gross monstrosity called the UA 737-900ER, or (b) connecting in SFO. All I Can say is yuck.

You list several things that stick out to me (1) you are "going to fly for another 30 years", and (2) you "bring the whole family with you.

MM status on UA is better than on DL (and AS has no such program that I know of) but I would not trust UA to not cut the benefits, like they did with the old 2MM benefits. Anyone who thinks UA's current management will not rip them off given the change, and will not break every promise, well good luck with that.

If you want to try to get everyone into J with Y tickets, well then until the GPUs run out, GS is probably as good of a deal as you are going to get (and its much worse than it used to be, another reason why I bailed on UA). DL is nice in that they don't require a W, but someone with more knowledge re Delta360 would have to describe how that works and if they can open up space.

Were I in your shoes, and if I was ok with connecting on KAL (going west to Russia) or AF/KLM (or other partners) east, I would seriously look at DL. The skyclub at SEA is very nice, and you will get a direct on DL metal to Asia/Europe. I would look at the DL360 thread on FT, or if your spend is high enough (it appears to require more than the $50+k on UA, although I bet at SEA you would get it with $44+k) on UA, just call DL and see what they say. I have no idea how they respond "Hi, I'm GS on UA, spend $___ per year, looking at bailing...."

Otherwise, I think you will find DM to provide great CS, just don't expect the ability to open up reward space that GS - or GS used to - be able to do.

Terence.Hill

I have been GS since 2010 and I am dropping out this year. Here was my experience:

"I have not paid a single change fee in 2017 (GS agents always waive them)":
I was asked to pay a $300 intl. change fee for buying a fare upgrade to W. Had to HUCA and the next agent waived it.

'[*]GS Agents ability to "make things happen" that normally shouldn't or wouldn't on a reservation":
Now they have gotten their hands tied and cannot go back to the old system booking award routes that don't come up automatically. Case in point: I booked a TATL reward that gave me a 50 min connection time in EWR. Called GS helpdesk to get on an earlier flight and increase connection time to 3h and learned "the system wants another 10,000 miles from you and I am sorry there is no way for me around that."

'[*]100% upgrade success rate - whether a CPU, RPU or GPU is used
My upgrade success rate has dropped very materially to last year's, regardless of the instrument used and most of the time I don't even fly out of a hub.

The last point is the most important reason for me dropping out of GS:

I have just booked a J RT via NYC-FRA in Nov. for $3.1k on SQ's A380. The only reason why I would have paid the $4.2k on UA's 8-abreast 777 instead would be to get domestic upgrades more reliably.

If I have to buy the domestic upgrades, which I don't mind in general, then I prefer this as a *G rather than a GS: my no-status associate pays $129 for an upgrade that would not even be available to me because of my higher status.