I earned 1K the "hard way" (segments) for many years. Part of me misses it dearly!

Yes, but would you want to reward fliers who fly a lot, but buy the dirt cheapest fares available, paying more in taxes and fees than in actual revenue, and are quite possibly costing you money if you start giving them better elite perks?

Thankful there are still distance based programs.

Can't speak to UA, but AA has made it rather easy. It has created a calculator that estimates the miles and Loyalty points you will accrue per trip, factoring in your current status and the amount spent. I know that two trips I take next qualifying period, will give me Gold status. This is absolutely fine with me.
I now know how much I need to spend to reach a status. Instead of making many unnecessary trips, I can make as few as possible and just pay more per trip. This is wonderful and easy tool to play with and understand.

I earned 1K status years ago based on segment flying United Express regional jets. It gives you a totally new perspective about frequent flying.
I have also made PMUA 1K almost exclusively on transoceanic flights in F/J. No doubt the 100 flights on RJs is a lot tougher. Small airports, remote cities, more frequent delays, no clubs, no gates, remote boarding, walked up and down the stairs with rollers, no RJ first class, no food/drinks etc. The world was so different from sitting in United International First Class on the 744 for 12+ hours.

Technically it's "easier" now than it's ever been. Two expensive return business class flights next January and you're 1K for the next 24 months. Doesn't get any easier than that!

I do miss the 1990s when I could earn Silver status with 5 transcon RTs @$200-250 RT from IAD. And I could easily upgrade to F using $25/500mi because there were no CPUs or UFCs. It was easy and affordable and within reach of leisure travelers and even Silver got decent perks.

No way you can get Silver for $1250 anymore (and tough to find RT transcons for $250) not to mention Silver is almost useless now

Only if you can fly with OPM or fall within the 1%. Most of us don't book "expensive" fares on our own dime and when I do I'm booking a discounted biz class fare (sub-2k RT) which won't get you jack.
But yes for biz travelers it is better than ever and has been for a while since UA eliminated EQM in favor of EQ$

It doesnt have to be business class.... wasnt some guy getting 1K from like three Y work trips to China in another thread?

Ding! And United knows that people are not as frugal to part with OPM as they are with their own money, in fact they are counting on people strategizing to use more OPM than needed just to pad their own PQPs

Agreed, a lot easier now. Was a lot harder and almost impossible to earn 1K the old way in January alone. Now? 2 business class overseas flights and you got 1K.

And gradually deceasing, even F9, an ULC, is going dollar based. Distance base programs are on the way out. Generally they rewarded the wrong passengers.

I think that's debatable, but probably OT.

Biz travelers don't really need rewards as they typically fly the best routing/price as determined by company travel policies. Of course everyone tries to work the system to accumulate in a favored program, but the choice of carrier is typically determined by your routings.

If anything the free agent leisure traveler is the one bringing marginal business. Of course the airline doesn't make much money on the economy fares but they need to fill those seats. So it would make sense to send a few bones to those passengers to attract their biz. But basically they are written off now. I guess they can fill those seats by adjusting the airfares down as needed.

Which thread is this again? Where's FlyerTalk from?
Got it.

getting status especially 1k is not supposed to be easy. What’s your point here?

I do miss the mileage part. The very first time I made 1K, my wife and I made a trip out of going to Chicago over Christmas Day in 2016. I bought us full-fare F on the way out, in a 3-class sUA 763 - a great way to spend a 2-hour flight. To top it off, the Fairmont Millennium Park had no one staying in it, and while I had measly status, they upgraded us to the presidential suite on the top floor. It was ridiculously cold, and I got sick and lost my voice, and experienced my first (and last) time taking Theraflu, but I have only fond memories of that. It's felt like much more of a slog holding onto 1K since then, and because I now have a family, it requires more creativity around what fares to buy and how much CC spend to do.

If you travel a lot in the olden days, getting to 100K BIS is par for the course.

If you have a lot of dough to blow at UA, you could achieve 1K in as little as one trip (with connections).