I have been in the United Mileage Plus program since 1991 as result of a joint promotion entered between Pan Am and United. I was in the Pam Am program before that.

Late in the 90s, I received an email from United informing me I was in an elite group called United Global Service with unpublished benefits that were in addition to the 1K status I had. There was hardly any PR or any words in the public domain about the program. I did not hear anyone mentioned it other than that email.

A year later, dot.com crash and then 9/11 came, travel industry got hit and I never heard from United again about the Global Service Group.

Around mid 2000, I was informed I was in the GS program. It was more formal and it got a lot of coverage on Flyertalk and the press. I have had GS ever since.

My question is what year did UA officially started the GS program in 2000s? I know I was one of the earlier ones got invited into GS when the current GS program got started but I am curious when it actually got started.

Wikipedia says 2003

Thank you.

I had thought it was around post bankruptcy to bring back high spending flyers.

2003�. Cannot believe it has been 22 years.

But UA's program was not the first! In the late-1980s I was invited to join Eastern Airlines' "Executive Traveler" program. It was invitation-only, unpublished. Our membership number was our home phone number, embossed on a tan and black card. It was spend-based as well. The primary benefit was free space-available upgrades on any fare, on any flight -- granted upon check-in at the airport within two hours of the flight. The code word we used when asking was "Is an ET upgrade possible?" The ET program ended with EA in 1991, of course. It did not carry over to OnePass.

I've been a UA GS about 15 year (LT since 2019 and earned prior). ET was a lot more exclusive -- word was there were only a few hundred invitees in any year. EA would bend over backwards to fix issues, with no "this is a one-time exception."

It was before 2003, but may not have been published.

Every new elite top tier comes into existence the moment I reach the prior top elite tier. Ergo, there's something above GS in the works, now that GS is the old 1K...

My guess is GS came into being in 2000, my first 1K year!

1K came in I believe in 1993, which was my first year as a top-tier Premier Executive (courtesy of a couple of unplanned trips to SE Asia as a student and a imiscredit that went into the wrong year). So it's a thing.

It was January 2003. I was an original member and maintained it since its outset. Currently enjoy lifetime status at 5.5 Million miles.

"When did United start the GS program?"

Didn't know the answer to that question, but I am 100% convinced they'll dissolve the program completely when I reach 3'995'000 BIS!

I recall 1K being Feb 1994.

The GS program "officially" started March 01, 2003. I remember vividly as I was flying ORD-IAD on 2/28 and the "nice" GA said to another passenger the GS program doesn't start until tomorrow so no priority boarding for you until tomorrow!
The following day, I flew IAD-SFO on a 3-cabin in F and FA went around with meal choices and she came up to me last and said, what is Global Services? Is that a Lufthansa program? I said no, and explained to her this was a new invitation only program above 1K and she was very apologetic not knowing about it. She ran up front to the other FA's and went rifling through there onboard updates to find the mentioning of GS to no avail.

Needless to say, the "secret" GS program was rolled out poorly in my view as a lot of front line people didn't even know, since it was a secret.. I could tell stories around this secretive roll out from check in and other passengers complaining why does he go first etc. to GA's to FA's and even pilots handing out business cards. Some were good and but a lot were not so good.

Prior to GS, they did a trial (roughly a year IIRC) with the number (which today is the GS number) etc. called Special services and then surveyed people at the end of the period, then created GS and rolled it out on March 1st. I think the one reason for that start date was back then, your status was good until end of Feb vs today it is end of Jan. That changed from Feb to Jan after the 2009 status year where it became Jan 2010 validation as it is today some 15 years later.

BTW....I did get my meal choice which was steak, on the rare side!

Is there anything more anyone can add about the pre-2000s version of GS that UA_Flyer mentioned in the original post? Curious what all was going on with it back then before it fizzled for a while.

Interesting details, thank you for sharing! Presumably, though, this line should read March 01, 2003? (I think I've been wistfully dreaming about GS for over 10 years now -- and I came from the pmCO side of things ) -- I thought GS was even older than 2003 but that seems to be the consensus date... and yes, back then I think everyone's "elite year" started either 3/1 or 4/1 -- guessing a remanent of the days of paper processing to let the ticket coupons, etc. associated with year end flying catch up without a break in benefits for those who requalified.

I remember back in 2001 Feb time period, 1K's started getting access to the ACA (regional carrier) lounge at IAD. I was going through there in March trying to get home repack and go to Singapore and the phone rang, and Tammy (the ACA concierge, she was great btw) said, Premium/VIP services is on the line and they moved me to an earlier delayed flight back to DEN so I can get home and fly the next day to SIN. I never knew what it was (or even existed) until I asked the 2 ladies that worked the IAD 1K office at IAD and they said yes, and these people are actually in the office next to us handling people and they actually recalled them asking where I was at the time and they mentioned if he is not in the UC, then he could be at the ACA lounge is how they tracked me down. I went next door to meet them so they could put a face with a name.

Prior to this, I never had the need or realized there was a "secret" tier/flagged people for this. I figured since I was through IAD almost weekly was why I got special treatment..

My bad on the date. I fixed it to match the title in the original post I made.

Were you wistfully dreaming about being a COstar before that?