Oregonflyer

I made GS with just over $60K last year out of a (small) non-hub. I also am over 3M lifetime Milles. I wonder if lifetime miles are taken into consideration. Any thoughts?

UA_Flyer

The small non-hub airport may play into consideration but not the 3 MM lifetime 1K status.

If you make 4MM lifetime BIS miles, I guarantee you it will taken into consideration.

LaserSailor

It�s not just spend, it�s premium spend. That�s why there are so many disgruntled domestic road warriors on 60k of corporate � you aren�t important enough fir J� travel who are 1Karens and 1Kens�it�s so fetch.

Rock214

Could be a glitch, but after getting dumped from GS despite spending $130k in 2023, I am now back to GS. No notification. Just now listed as GS on my app.

edited to add, so did most of my coworkers. All without notification other than the status on the app changing.

benewr

Wow, so it was a glitch and it just took them 4 month to fix it 😂😂😂

Rock214

Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

WineCountryUA

Likely some serious discussion at the corporate level about renewing the UA contract. "Our team is pissed at UA, restore or don't bother"

ContinentalFan

On a flight in February, an FA asked a 1k �what are you doing back here?� He explained that despite spending about $100k, the CEO wasn�t invited back to GS. He retaliated by mandating that all company flights on United are only reimbursed if flying in Basic Economy. Of the 40 to 50 people impacted, fewer than ten remained with United. Most deserted to Delta, some to American. Others are buying United tickets through a *A partner, but he expects that route will be shut down too.

I wonder does that sort of information filter its way back to the people who matter?

cmhua777

I am based in a UA hub, but am far from captive.

All of UA�s hubs, except DEN, have a lot of international carriers. Almost everywhere I fly - 90% international - requires a connection. Being GS keeps me on UA. If I wasn�t, I would hit 1K and the other $45k would go elsewhere. So it would be shortsighted to assume �hub-dwellers� are stuck. It�s true domestically but not so much internationally.

It�s hard to know what UA is planning this year. On one hand, having more GSs is a good thing for them. It improves loyalty without a lot of added cost. Very few benefits cost UA incrementally:

• GS lobbies are built and staffed
• GS phone agents aren�t dedicated
• Upgrade space is handled through Revenue Management, and only offered if needed
• Miles and Plus Points are awarded at exactly the same rate as 1Ks

The only benefit that has a potential cost, that I can think of, is the forced segment upgrade. It�s not an advertised benefit, most GSs likely don�t know it exists, and now that it�s limited to a single segment the risk/use is lower.

My takeaway is UA should welcome a manageable-sized GS population. It�s a powerful tool that generates loyalty. Reducing the ranks to create more exclusivity would be foolish, in my opinion.

If you assume the lowest qualification threshold, $50k, it means $26k ($50k-$24k 1K threshold) would be at risk from everyone being cut. That�s nowhere near the spend they put against the GS program.

Polytonic

That seems oddly petty, especially for anyone hub-captive.

Rock214

No idea really. But my company doesn�t care who we fly with. At all. And the people at corporate levels fly in a fleet of corporate jets. It might have something to do with roughly 250 of us peons shifting on average $100k worth of flying from United to other carriers starting about 2 days after they dropped us as GS. Not sure. It�s business. All sides doing what benefits them the most. Just another wave in the sine wave of business travel policies.

fumje

So are you and your co-peons coming back now? Have UA put humpty back together?

WineCountryUA

Most corporate contacts (for discounted pricing) have required minimums and if folks were shifting away, the minimum was potentially at risk and the travel department may have "advised" UA the future renewal would be smaller. At least someone in the UA chain would be looking at a smaller bonus and that might have led to a reconsideration. That is how business works. Not unusual for changes to go too far and be restored -- the corporate pendulum at work.

Rock214

Good question. I�ve scheduled my travel into July. That doesn�t leave much time to accumulate enough spending to make GS in 2025. And flying on other carriers has been a pleasant change. I�ve learned the hazards of committing to one airline under the assumption their rules won�t change. Supposedly American Airlines is going to stop giving frequent flier miles at all for tickets purchased outside of �approved� vendors or their website. That was going to start in May but they�ve moved it to July. I�ll make 1k on United at a minimum in 2024. Maybe once I see what changes they make to the GS program for 2025 I�ll decide whether to make them my first choice in 2025. I suspect most of my coworkers will do the same.

SPN Lifer

$50K - $24K = $26K

Edit: The letters in a post cannot be all capitalized (to prevent "shouting").

Some capitalized abbreviations get un-capitalized (Technical Support Forum)