Will the "investment" to earn UA MMer and higher have been worth it?
 

Flew for years and reached 2MM a couple of years ago. Was elated to be set for life.

But the game will change, and status may not mean the same thing. The airline will change. The program will change. What will MM status look like moving forward?

So far nothing has changed, 2MM means Plat for Life with the same preqs as last year. Could it change, yes. Hard to answer your question without a framework of changes you seem to expect. And then that is still speculative encouraging extreme responses.

Are you asking what status in the future will be like or do you expect the MM status to be different?

In what timeframe? The fact that United has removed valuable benefits from MM in the past speaks for itself.

Yet :(

I'm at 0.75 million miles but called it quits and moved to AS+Partners. UA is known for reengaging on previous commitments. I just don't trust them.

You shouldn't view MM status as an "investment" more as badge you collect for having spent a bunch of other peoples money. The value of that badge is subject to change at any time by the airline, but they will likely keep the badge around and it will likely retain some sort of value.

IMHO, the value of MM actually increases over time since (as a 1MM) I don't have to worry about the mumbo jumbo of requalification, and (by extension) I'm free to fly any Star Alliance that makes sense for my travels. Truth be told, even mileage earning doesn't matter much to me anymore -- Premier status is mostly about being treated like a human being throughout the travel process.

The original statement clearly refered to the time since the OP has gotten 2MMer status

100% agree

The way I see it, on any given flight there are, say, 15% of passengers who are profitable to UA and get their top tier treatment (whatever that might be). And then there are the other, say, 85% who look for the lowest fares and are treated accordingly. My MM status puts me somewhere in between these groups, which means I'm still relatively close to the front of the line when I want/need something.

My “badge” was “purchased” with 100% of my own money

I am also around 0.8 after many years....been 1K for past 3......with everything slowing down, I sense it is going to be not only a long time before I get some serious BIS miles under my belt.... but unfortunately, the benefits of MM might not change - but the opportunities to use them

sigh..... I miss flying and the reasons why I was flying (which are going away as everything is moving toward Zoom, etc...)

-m

I hope I can get to 1MM before United does something to make the program less valuable. They are using their time at home to come up with ways to screw loyal fliers.

The best thing about making 1MM is that it liberated me from flying UA unless there is a good reason. Star Alliance gold for life is a good perk. But I've enjoyed trying other airlines without penalty.

There's a lot of assuming floating around. Having dealt with the changes after 9/11, and the changes with the 2008-2009 recession, all I'll assume is that I have no idea what, if any, long term changes will come of this. Anyone who says "UA will do this" is purely guessing. My guess - a slow rebound, just like after 9/11, except that the airlines won't shed half their fleets nor do dramatically change their pricing structure. The tech crash of 2000-2001, with 9/11 as the coup de grace, destroyed the old airline pricing model. That wont' happen this time. My guess is they simply scale back up as business returns. My hope is that the on-board stuff right now, like no ice, very limited food and beverage even for premium cabins, really no service at all on flights under a couple of hours, this all goes away as the virus subsides.

{What if}, by end-2022 if not sooner, you see few if any 757/767s at the hubs, and basic First / basic Polaris tickets are the "new normal" expectation for premium cabin sale fares.