WineCountryUA

The Apple - UA relationship has been extensively discussed in this forum, as has, the level of corporate discounts off of UA's "rack rate".

However, the subject of this thread is what UA might do to concerning status for flyers in 2021 impacted by changes in their 2020 travel by the COVID-19 situation.

Let's return to discussing the titled subject.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

emcampbe

wait, did I miss AA and DL announce status extensions? we’re talking hypotheticals here, right?

Certainly, if DL/AA did that, and UA didn’t, there would very likely be more than average number of folks switching. However, there are other factors that might keep many on UA - preference for nonstop vs. connecting flights, corporate contracts, and in other cases, lowest cost. On the other hand, I suspect either none of the big 3 offer extensions, or they all do (with varying conditions). Or status promotions.

maybe, maybe not. The big spenders are likely ones that are more likely to be able to give other airlines a shot anyway. If one is, buying premium cabin anyway, does status really matter - you get pretty much anything status gives you anyway.

Id say flying is a pain in the .... no matter who you are or what status you have. I’d put it this way: having status makes flying slightly less of a pain in the ....

glbltvlr

Well, yes. But playing devil's advocate, you have to look at the premium you pay for UA status, vs. what it would cost to just buy a better ticket on the occasional flight where UA is the better choice.

jsloan

I didn't say that status didn't make a difference; I said that it's not a goal, in and of itself.

Furthermore, the gist of my comment was that people aren't likely to switch airlines willy-nilly because they lost status, as all of the major airlines have status match or challenge programs in place. If there's another airline that makes sense for any given customer, that customer can switch and retain status via the status match. If somebody's flying UA, it's likely because UA is the most logical airline for them to fly.

kb1992

At this point, the premiums to pay for UA status are $5,000 for Silver, $10,000 for Gold, $15,000 for Platinum and $24,000 for 1K (unless you fly lots of segments).

Personally I don't think it's worth the money.

Also UA asks significantly more than DL and AA to qualify status.

findark

The bigger point is not really about loyalty versus Kayaking, but that for many people there is a clear choice of carrier based on price and schedule most of the time, and no amount of FFP is really going to change that. When I lived in SFO, I was going to take United between WAS and SFO pretty much regardless of anything else, simply because they flew planes. Thus, choosing United from substantially equal options for other travel made a lot of sense, and I got some upgrades for it. But without an FFP, the bulk of my travel would still have been on UA.

Same now.. I am primarily flying DL from MSP, again because.. they have the planes that fly where I want to go. Their FFP is notably weaker than United's but I'm not going to waste three hours per trip at ORD just to "demonstrate loyalty" or whatever. And so my international travel (where I don't mind flying spurious segments) will probably gravitate toward ST.

zombietooth

+1

I think that UA elites are blind to the actual value that elite status on UA actually delivers. For instance, my UG rate via RPUs and CPUs basically went to 0 last year, so I got no domestic value out of being 1K. I still cleared all of my GPUs internationally though.

I believe my loyalty to UA over the last few years has cost me thousands in higher fares. I was so loyal that I would book a double-connection to stay on UA over a non-stop flight on another carrier. Then, in SEP of 19, I had to cancel a business trip to PHL that I needed to re-book a couple of weeks later. I wanted to use my residual credit of around $800, so I was powerfully-motivated to use UA. However, what I found was shocking; the cheapest coach fare on UA was more than F, non-stop, on AA! In all my years, I never suspected that things like this were possible. So I took the plunge and booked that trip in F on AA. I found their service good and, based on the fact that UA was massively devaluing their program in the last quarter of 19, started "kayaking", i.e. searching via an all-carrier search engine for the cheapest F fare for my business flights (I had resolved to buy F on all transcons from SEP on because my RPU/CPU rate went to zero).

My goal was to find the shortest travel time combined with the lowest price. What I found was that flights from/to my primary airports (EWR, IAD, IAH) were almost always cheaper on AA and often cheaper on DL. We're not talking peanuts either; my latest flight from EWR-SNA in F was 1.7K+ on UA and 1.1K on AA. I'll take a connection to save $600- any day of the week.

I understand the value of PlusPoints for international itineraries but, for someone like me, flying domestically from UA hubs and getting no UGs across a long expanse of time, I believe that one would be far better off just buying the cheapest, most convenient F ticket you can find, across all carriers. Believe me, elite status doesn't really matter when you're flying in paid F. In fact, F boards first on AA flights, before most elites-only CK boards before F.

mrmoo

I think this is normal. I am the same way. Right now most of my travel is to/from ORD where United has a better schedule and price than AA. For a while I was doing mostly BNA so I was doing Southwest. Then for a while I was doing TUS where there is no nonstop, in this case most of my travel was UA partially because of the FFP and status, but I did fly DL a few times as well if it was substantially cheaper or offered a better schedule (3 hour layovers in DEN vs 1 hour in ATL).

tilhas

I agree! It's going to be a shock for someone who is Gold or above that loses his status. Someone should post youtube video on their facial expression from not selecting seats to getting on the plane last. Or even better, kicked off an oversold flight and put on the next flight in a middle seat in the last row that doesn't recline.

COSPILOT

As a nobody on UA now, but always paying for first class I can say that lack of status has been a complete non issue. UA is my best choice for travel, as such I will likely hit Gold or Platinum this year, but not because I care.

JimInOhio

I think most who qualify for Silver are going to have at least 12 segments anyway so the de facto spend will be $4000 for most. You might even make a similar case for Gold and $8000.

UA vs NW

Based on the current situation, I think United can easily drop the new elite qualifying policy hated by a lot of the existing premier members as a favor, and scale back to the old elite qualifying policy liked/accepted by a lot of the existing premier members, because no matter what, a quite large proportion of the existing premier members might not be able to re-qualify for 2021's status anyway.

JimInOhio

Go back? No one has been keeping track of the obsolete PQMs.

uastarflyer

easy to do in backend IT

They somehow were able to reset lifetime miles with 20-25 years of history recomputed. This would be cake

JimInOhio

That’s not the point. The customers haven’t been keeping track. I’d probably fare better on the old system but I really don’t know that, either. But for those who are definitely doing better on the new system, are you just going to pull the rug out from under them with no warning?