adambrau

If you are spending that much on air travel per year I understand your frustration with chasing the UA dragon, and not feeling you're getting anything worthwhile.

Living in NYC close to the Holland Tunnel, flying out of EWR with GS and Pre Check (super expedited security screening) and Global Entry I probably save 2 hours a trip with UA. Norm for me on return from Asia/Europe with carry only - being back in my apartment 45 minutes after touchdown. If I fly 20 trips a year, that is 40 hours I get back (in theory) than if I held a lower status.

So even if GS is not what it once was, if it saves you time thru the airport, to the tune of 40 hours per year, that's a benefit which is hard to monetize. Depends on you.

cerealmarketer

You speak from first hand Diamond experience and (I'm only Platinum) agree it's over rated, esp out of NYC.

I keep the status because it's easy to earn via the credit card and is useful for situations where UA flight isn't convenient, or there's a fare savings. I also find there's more advance upgrade space transcon on Delta, but as a GS you get the PN space so that doesn't matter.

I'm also guessing like me as much as DL has its over rated tendencies, it's still better than dealing with AA.

UA_Flyer

adambrau

At EWR they walk you right to the front of the Pre-Check line. I assume I can arrive an hour later for departure due to this feature.

OK granted returning GE can get you from plane to cab in 15 minutes. And as you point out, is not a GS but GE perk.

Still 20 hours or more a year at home count's a lot, for me.

5khours

Naw! GE has nothing to do with GS. And going through GS check-in takes you to the head of the pre-check, which typically means you get to cut in front of 2 or 3 people. Saves you a minute or two max.

ermintrude

GS has only been devalued for a handful of people in the last few years --- the biggest devaluations have been loosing the ability to force certain things and also the loss of inherited status .... It's still a great status to have, particularly if you have done your homework. However you are still better off as a 1K who knows what they are doing than a GS who doesn't - but that's always been the case

DENflyer3

What I have notices the most over the last year is the amount of times I call in and I do not get an actual GS agent. Its like GS now is just the first in the line to someone "better" than most.

However, the screw ups on last second changes have increased massively. Just yesterday I had an agent tell me no seats were left on a last flight out when I tried to make a change to go home to DEN a day early. I was looking at the app when I called it in and saw it was available. I thanked her for her time, and she asked me if I needed a rental car in DEN when I got there. Then I just booked it direct on the App and called in the refund after I got someone good on the phone.

But yeah, I have seen a decrease in service this year especially on the phone.

s0ssos

Living close to EWR is also not a GS perk.

J.Edward

Being IAH based with family in DEN and SFO with travel I can often knock out with a long day trip (e.g. IAH > SFO in the early AM / SFO > IAH and back home ~11pm) the schedule + P fare price point (generally ~$300-$360 ex. IAH for myself) puts UA front and center for myself.

Moving beyond my unique travel patterns to a more general observation about UA, I've found UA to generally to offer a decent advance purchase, restricted domestic F product. This comes at the expense of comp upgrades and UA committing a higher number of their domestic F seats to, what I assume to be, lower yielding PRASM fares and I hope UA's savvy enough to make sure they're not displacing premium international customers for lack of a front-cabin domestic connection...but that's for another thread.

spin - you asked why would someone fly UA when paying for J. Beyond an unflexible schedule constraint or misplaced excessive brand loyalty, the reasons grow thin. But to play devil's advocate for a moment, I've found UA's discount-fare front cabin product to be a solid offering for both domestic and international travel. Couple this with banks' entry into the loyalty game where you can score $0.015 / point (i.e. CSR or AX Biz Plat w/ 35% kicker) and all of a sudden you've got a paid offering looking really similar to the traditional award offering.

Case and point: I'm looking at a $2.7k P fare IAH > AMS > IAH later this year. In round numbers, I'll need ~175k bank points to ticket that and I'll be paying a 55k point premium when compared to a traditional 120k award. Let's also say I'll earn ~28k in UA RDMs for the paid option, which shrinks the delta to ~27k points over an award, not making any allotment for EQDs/EQMs/lifetime/etc. earnings. Moreover, if I really wanted to get cute, I suppose I could route onto LH and apply a GPU to go from P > F, with this option but notwithstanding such one-off awards my point is the new front cabin product (read: new Polaris seat/lounge /new domestic F) UA offers at their discounted F price point strikes me as reasonable.

Am I paying J prices? Absolutely not. If I were would I be on UA? ....probably not. Do I feel like I'm getting value for P? Yes. Would I blindly book a UA P fare without shopping the comps? Absolutely not...as an EXP I'm loving those QR R fares when offered!

Finally, I say this with the understanding like you, I too would book away from Y in UA. I also generally book away from Polaris in UA if it's not the new seat unless there's some deal which would otherwise compel me to book UA (e.g. using my GPUs to upgrade Y > C awards).

I've found PN to be more readily available in the wild domestically but not nearly as much internationally. I'll see domestic flights where with PNx R0 but generally not so much on the international flights. That said, with P being open, and assuming your booking timeline allows you to hit the requirements to score the fare, PN/R become irrelevant. Especially if a 3rd party bank or employer is covering the cost.

As far as AA, I've found their program almost is like the reverse of UA for myself. With UA I'll often aim to book far enough out to score a P/PN. AA is generally my go to when I need a cheap Asia > US fare I can buy and upgrade at the last minute (HKG > LAX/DFW is generally my go to and can generally find space 1-2 days prior to departure). As a UA GS I can access upgrade on an award but as an AA EXP I can upgrade any Y ticket to C. Don't know which is better - or even if one can objectively answer that question - but I've found AA to be useful for filling the last-minute-ex-Asia-cheap-Y-upgrade need I tend to have a few times a year.

My take on GS is the real intangible value of the program lies in being able to secure assistance from employees when you really need it.

Earlier this year I was connecting through SFO to HKG and my inbound took an ATC delay. Got to the gate with a - 3-minute connection but a GS agent was there in the jetway. We hustled down the stairs, jumped into the car, drove to the connecting gate, ran up the stairs, and the GA closed the door immediately after I boarded. The point here is I really needed to make that flight and GS was able to coordinate it (as well as offer multiple protection options). UA hustled, I made my connection, and I appreciate the effort it took to make it happen.

Returning to the OP's question as to the slow demise of the program: my take is no, not really from my viewpoint of being either 1K or GS for ~the past 4 years. I do sense UA's tried to focus the program on the experience (e.g. scrambling to allow you to make your connection) and away from the hard goodies (upgrades) but I see this more as an industry trend and less of a specific GS program issue.

Kacee

The pre-check line can be 20+ minutes at EWR.

adambrau

I am not going to argue what the times savings are of holding GS status and Pre-Check for departures - it obviously depends on time of day and other factors. The reality is that I can plan to arrive at EWR for departures 1 hour before int'l flight time and never worry about cutting it too close. If I was 1K with Pre-check I would definitely plan to arrive 2 hours before STD. YMMV.

You missed the point. The fact that I can get to EWR faster by road or rail than LGA or JFK from where I live in Manhattan is not the benefit of GS. The fact that I can arrive 1 hour before int'l departures, ISO of 2 hours, is the perk. Is that such a difficult concept to grasp?

s0ssos

Yes. I can get to the airport 1 hour before an international departure. I don't live in New York. I live near an airport that isn't a hot mess like EWR.
Is that a perk?

You know there are options other than EWR. I don't know if you know but there are other airlines, other airports, that might take you also to the same destination. Like, LAX, SFO, SEA. Maybe even DEN. Wow, there are a lot of these things called international airports.

But I guess if you have no option other than EWR, because you have to fly UA, then yes, that is a perk.

gmt4

This is exactly what I do. If I'm not in a paid F seat from the start, I'll buy up at check in (or before) if the price is right and I really want insure a seat up front, rather than putting my hopes and dreams into an upgrade clearing. I'm only a 1k and have good success on most routes, but hub to hub? Forget about it. Usually too low on the status pole to have success unless its late at night or midweek or something. I guess I've been conditioned to do exactly what UA and the carriers want- to spend, spend, spend on the extras and higher priced fares.

adambrau

Live in Manhattan and I can't change that. I value maximum time home and no other airline offers me more of that than UA. As I stated above, my regular destinations are Frankfurt, London and Hong Kong. It's a no brainer.

Where do you live so we can make this a purposeful conversation? Where do you fly to?

5khours

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I never show up at the airport more than an hour before an international flight. I usually try to get there 45 minutes before my flight but sometimes give it more for traffic (e.g. Brooklyn to EWR) or some airports like HKG. Frankly, EWR is not that bad. Recently I've never waited more than 5 minutes for pre-check. Also, if you're flying international F, most airlines treat you better than UA treats GS and will wait if your running late.

I get that GS works for some people, but objectively if you're flying a lot and booking in the front to start with, there really is almost no value in GS.