ContinentalFan

Seldom. I sometimes select multiple departure airports: LAX, BUR, ONT and SNA.

One other thing that I should mention is craziness around SDC that happened quite often. When coming back from SIN to SIN, I was often offered DEN and sometimes LAS as a connecting option at no extra charge. I was offered IAD or EWR three or four times. I wasn’t able to do it (plus for EWR, the seats were terrible) but it would have added 5,000 more LT miles.

narvik

With casual flyers, or ones who are (currently) loyal to United?
The result of this change won't spell doom & gloom for UA, but it won't be as positive as United -I am sure- is forecasting either.
Wouldn't be surprised if United will start seeing the real (negative) impact of this by Q3 2020.

TomMM

On my flights I see long BG2 lines.

notquiteaff

Letter from Chase for my Select VISA arrived today. No additional information, other than perhaps the wording "During the 2020 calendar year, United MileagePlus Select Cardmembers will earn 500 PQP for every $12,000 spent, up to 3,000 PQP". (bolding added) Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but the 5000 EQM for $5k United spent were left unchanged for a decade or longer. I think the PQPs earned via credit card spend may not be left alone that long.

zombietooth

Those of you who are MM'ers:

Is there any reason for you to strive to achieve the now very difficult Platinum qualifications when the only tangible benefit that I see is 40 PlusPoints? Presumably, you all have miles that you can use for upgrading, so getting 1 extra GPU equivalent just doesn't seem to be that motivating. Or am I wrong on this?

scubadu

Or... and I'm just spit balling here... but maybe they still sell long haul tickets, but not everyone that buys those has to be top tier/1K. Maybe they drop a tier or two. And given that most FFP members are not FTers, maybe, just maybe they don't completely lose their mind over that change in status. Crazy talk I know, but is that also a possibility?

Well, if the spend doesn't match the benefits, then in a free market economy isn't the appropriate response to vote with your wallet and take ones business elsewhere? If UA has misjudged, they will pay a price, just like any other company that makes a mistake. Then they will adjust course and it will work or they will go out of business (obviously unlikely). That is actually how a free market economy is supposed to work, no? Nobody is "trapped' here. I mean this stuff isn't that complicated. I am utterly perplexed regarding how emotional people are about these loyalty programs. A graduate student some where should do a study on how FFPs literally re-wire peoples brains...

We shall see me friend. But you can at least understand why I'm skeptical of this argument, right? I mean people on FT literally claim this every single year, with every single change. I mean when UA added PQDs to begin with it was the end of the world. And oh by the way not allowing spend on Star Alliance partners not bought on UA ticket stock to count as PQDs, that was the end of the world, right? Then when they raised PDQs to $12K, that, now that, was really the end of the world as we know it, right? Oops, wait, then when they raised PQDs to $15K, now that, that really is just the end of UA as we know it, this was a huge mistake, right?

Now, maybe this time really is different, who knows, unlike many FTers, I don't claim to be able to predict the future so I don't know. But you can at least understand my skepticism when the viability of a business strategy is argued from the perspective of an FTer who is perceived as being "scorned," right?

Regards

narvik

BTW, I'll book at least 4 RT long-haul UA tickets for 2020 in E or PE class to get rid of the PlusPoints.
Beyond that, I'll be shopping around for business class tickets, and simply look for the best deals (which may still include UA of course.)

notquiteaff

None. A few years ago, I might have been enticed by the award fee change waivers for Plats. It probably wouldn't have been a financially wise decision. But nowadays, I don't really see any reason to work towards Plat status. It would basically mean directing all my dollars and butt-in-seat-time to United, and the incremental benefits just don't make that worth it. I'd rather be flexible with my airline choices, earn some valuable miles on AS, pick flights based on schedule or price or interesting new airline. And perhaps most importantly I am still working on burning down my stockpiles of miles in various programs, acquired over the pre-MM years when award travel was threatening my ability to earn status.

After last night's TATL redemption:



(125 PQM from a cheap A3 flight)

planes&trains

^

narvik

(bolding mine)
You do realize that this is exactly what I am (and others are) saying, right?


(bolding mine)
Interesting.
I was under the impression that some emotional element was ALWAYS precisely & deliberately a major part of any FFP.
Case in point: the background image on this page :


https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...s/Default.aspx


(bolding NOT mine)
Understood.
Going from 12K to 15K is NOT the same as going from 15K to 18K+54seg, or 15K to 24K.
The word tipping point has been used a few times.
We shall see. ^

STS-134

I don't see why you're so perplexed about this. The whole purpose of a loyalty program is to rewire people's brains and get them addicted to some sort of activity that benefits the business running the loyalty program. Then, the targets of the loyalty program can literally behave like drug addicts, doing things that are against their own economic self interest because they've lost a clear view of what they're putting in and what they're getting out.

See also: https://lifehacker.com/how-casinos-u...-yo-1830864482


Anything there sound familiar? Free drinks/meals? That's kinda like lounge access. Points that can be redeemed for discounts/cash/more? That sounds like PlusPoints. Etc.

notquiteaff

After 11 years on Flyertalk you are utterly perplexed by this? Really?

DCEsquire

Others have said some version of this but after many frustrating mental cycles I have concluded the same. That is that they are going to make more money selling the upgrade than giving it away for lower margin revs. That's the only thing that makes sense. That said, my biz will not let me pay for the upgrade but they will let me pay for E+ and use my own instruments so not sure if they have a valid data set here.

kb1992

It's been nearly a week since United announced stunning and unprecedented animosity towards most of current elites. I am even more perplexed why United took such drastic measure.

$5,000 for Silver? Really? For possible E+ at 24 hour check-in, 1 free baggage and 0.1% chance of CPU?

$10,000 for Gold who can't do segments? Oh please. With that kind of money, you can become Platinum on many, many airlines.

Same for $15,000 requirement of Platinum. The only meaningful benefit is measly 40 PP upgrade points or 10% chance of CPU. You can buy possibly 4-5 round-trip TATL/TPAC biz class tickets for less.

$24,000 for 1K? Don't even get me started. This is basically half GS money. The main benefit of 1K is GPUs, but I can buy many biz class tickets with $24,000.

I am sure that Scott Kirby loves the flyers who pays $8,000 for each ticket. But there are not enough of them to fill the planes. He needs average citizens to fly too. Loyalty programs were aimed at passengers who didn't necessarily spend top-dollar, but who flew relatively often and could be enticed to spend more. .

Clearly United doesn't mind to destroy long term loyalty of many current elites for short term gain. They don't even pretend to hide their greed (see Oscar's comment at today's Q3 conference). Do they realize it's lot easier to retain a loyal customer than get a new one? How did they even come up with these mind-bugging and absurdly high dollar numbers? For those who think they will make it next year, how do we know if United would not go even higher?

The whole thing is insulting to the wisdom of flying public. The MBAs at Chicago HQ obviously have a bean counter mentality and think we don't know basic math and we are stupid.

Big 3 airlines aren't really scared of passengers leaving due to industry consolidation where they essentially copy each other. I get that. But when the economy is going downturn, those "high valued" passengers whose tickets are bought by OPM will disappear in dives.

For all the arrogance and hostile attitude demonstrated by this United regime, the next recession can't come soon enough for me.

glbltvlr

Of course. The writing was on the wall. Once they figured out how to get load factors up to near 100%, those "free" seats had to be monitized.