That's a bit of a generalization, not all 1Ks are saying that, not even a large percentage. Granted a high percentage of international foreign types are (me included) but again, not me as I am tied to LHR/SFO at the moment so UA all the way there. For other destinations I will pick whomsoever flies direct. I shall rely on lifetime gold as I don't think I can make the PQD or whatever it will be called next year.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up for me.
^

The 1K benefits made sticking with UA worthwhile. Losing those benefits now makes sticking with UA masochistic.

In my experience, 1K is the only status level which provides a significant number of guaranteed or nearly-guaranteed upgrades. The financial benefit of this, at least in my years of 1K, is easily in the thousands of dollars per year. Lower status levels simply don't offer that, and are in my mind comparably worthless (not completely without value, but vastly less so than 1K).

Definitely going to fall short 1K in 2020 with my current pattern. I prefer to buy P fare or buy up into Z where possible instead of playing the upgrade game. Thus, the number one 1K benefit I find really, really useful and will miss is the 1K hotline and pre-boarding. However, flight times just work better with UA than LH for me. Thus, I'l likely continue to collect with MP.

I don't see benefit on domestic travel. The trips that I take are IAD-BDL,PVD, ROC. For the intl travel I stick with UA because of the lounge access. Now that I wont have it I don't have to travel via Europe. My company pays for the flights and its all in economy.
I'm not going to get 1K for the next year, and it's not like "no lessor status matters". But I don't want to be loyal to the airline that is putting vaseline on the finger to get you. If your company is paying for your premium travel that's good for you.

I also have LHR/SFO as my principal route. BA and VS (and also Norwegian) fly that route. Their economy seating is far superior to UA’s now, even without E+, as UA’s 777s are torture. Their service is superior. Without GPUs, UA is simply uncompetitive, despite lifetime Gold.

I have been mulling this over recently and next year I might just bite the bullet and try one. Have you tried LHR-SJC (San Jose) at all? It's actually closer to the hotel I use. And so I am sure - you are saying BA/VS/Norwegian economy is better than E+ on UA777s? Thanks.

90% of my flying is SFO to WAS. Alaska is the only other option that may work for me, but my main concern with them is the lack of frequency.

As I am on the verge of 3MM lifetime (will need 48.5k in 2020), I plan on flying those expeditiously before any more enhancements can be introduced in the first half of 2020. At that point, I will status-match/challenge over to Alaska MVP75 and finish out the year with a few planned BA first class trips that should ensure re-qualification on Alaska for 2021. As I fly mostly paid Z (or now that I am sprinting for lifetime BIS miles P) fares so the only real benefits are some occasional assistance during irrops, pre-boarding, and fee-free award changes. I look forward to being a free-agent if you will, and flying best combination of product / value depending on destination, while having the fall-back of 1k for life on UA. I am hoping that, given the steep increase in qualification criteria, we may see a stabilization or slight improvement in 1k benefits after the purge happens next year.

So who's booked on *A as a result of this change rather than UA, in order to maximize the PQPs?

Does your flight confirmation show the anticipated PQPs you will net?

Wouldn't estimated PQP only show if there's a UA segment or if it's a 016-ticket?

But for my reservations with UA segment or 016-tickets, the estimated PQP do show up correctly. Even on non-016 mixed itineraries.

I'm a lowly Silver but IAH is my home. I've enjoyed getting nice trips out of my Chase spend the past 4-5 years but I think I'm going to be moving on now. I'm traveling enough where I'm considering the United Club one.
Otherwise it's off to get a good universal one while it lasts

I usually just buy or pay upgrade to first.
I fly less than once/month and I could probably get better at earning miles with how I book but, its also a hassle

Drats. I got really excited with the announced changes to LH’s M&M program which would all me to get *G faster and cheaper than UA. I was planning on booking/crediting my Jan 2020 travel to LH until i noticed the changes are effective Jan 2021

I actually intend to consider lifemiles, yes they are not in the best of shapes, but still dont ahve dynamic pricing , they have very good award availability ..........sometimes I get flights on UA metal cheaper than using miles from MP ...................there is no spending requirement........its 5k miles less for gold.............and the only detail is I need to fly 10k miles on avianca...which is easy for someone in Latin America that goes to the States.

Have been a long time MP member qualifying for Gold, Premier 1K for a year, then Silver... Was planning to try to requalify for next year but I guess this is it.

Time to change to another FF program...