This makes my point about loyalty. It is more intelligent for an airline to develop loyalty and receive continued customer purchases than for a less committed customer to start trying one's competitor's, as this may be a means by which the firm ends up permanently oosing their committment.

Promises, promises. ;)

IMHO, this the start of the great culling of MP. Most of the other airlines have made their loyalty programs tougher and in some cases (NH for one) have recently scaled back on the perks.

UA would be crazy to continue offering things the competition have taken away and it doesn't look like they need the cash bounce from the 2X offer this year. It wouldn't surprise me if the SWUs are also scaled down in 2008.

I can't fault UA in this regard, but only hope that the true value in the MP program returns as the numbers of "elite" status pax are reduced.

liveitup - no venom from me. As an overseas, non-American i have to get my eqm's via the BIS method. No short cuts for me. My frustration is at not being able to use my earned miles. I usually manage 50-60k BIS miles each year, but not this year. So i was looking for the help of DEQM for this year,. But I'd just as happily make a couple of weekend visits to New York or points east to make 1p again this year via BIS. If i could use my large supply of miles to get an upgrade, so i'd be in a fit state for work when i got back. I may still do that, but i will probably fly SQ as the economy seats are more comfortable, service is better and the flights cheaper.

RE: all the negativity, I think some of us (present company included) are used to counting on the DEQM promotion as a safety net. And because the promotion has been running consistently for the past x number of years, there's an expectation that it's the norm. It's similar to what happened to WN when they pulled the double credit for online booking. People ranted, screamed, and threatened to take their business elsewhere.

With that said, I'm all for voting with the mighty dollar and taking business elsewhere when I'm not satisfied. Since I already hit 1P for the year, and there's no chance in hell for me to make 1K without the DEQM, I'm not going to book that MR to Asia that I was planning on, and possibly look at other airlines for the remainder of Q4 since there's no incentive for me to pay a premium (in general) and not achieving the next status level.

I can understand why you wouldn't do a UA MR, but (assuming UA's 1P is the only only status you have), why would you not benefit from your existing status for the remaining flights that you have to take anyway? Would you be able to reach any status on another airline by the end of year? Or are the other carriers more convenient/a lot cheaper?

My strategy for 1K this year was to fly 10K BIS miles per month. If I could do it for business trips each month, then that was great, but if not, then I would take a personal trip. I am now comfortably at 99K+ and will make 1K on my next trip. DEQM is not important to me. If making 2P/1P/1K, etc., is important to you, then you should never count on a promotion like DEQM to get you there. All is not lost though. You just have to start flying a lot if you want to make it in the rest of the year.

If status is that important to you, do your flying sooner rather than later.Soon now, the weather will be getting bad and flights will get canceled. This will impact MRs. Don't chance it. Start early. Fly a lot. Then you won't care about the DEQM promo either.

^
Wah, but I want my Ice Cream, Wah
The donkey and the carrot.
I used this promotion once because I needed to, after that I it was BIS miles to make 1K.
Maybe this was UA's way of training some of us?
I passed the class, now step up and stop moaning. :D

Easy for me,

if no double EQMs

I'll wait until January, and qualify for 2009 instead. :D (satus to 2010)

IMHO if someone is close to 1K just take couple of weekends off with adventurous routings and have fun. Getting 1K isn't that difficult.

Personally I am at 72K EQM's at this point and after couple of flights next week should be around 82K.

Sorry - if this is already stated but this thread is so long. Is the DEQM confirmed as not happening or just still rumors?

And you would find that even the lowest AA Gold's are treated better than many of UA's best customers. No ICCs (ever!) - which is huge if you fly a lot. The AC CSRs are referred to as AAngels not Matrons or Dragons, for rather obvious reasons. And yes, AA really seems to go the extra yeard to make elites and F-class travelers feel special.

Welcome to the club! Thanks to the AA challenge, I was liberated a few years ago and discovered that I get better overall treatment from AA and have a much easier time using my miles for high value awards like international C. Have also ramped up travel on WN because it offers better short-haul service: (1) On time (2) Free drinks (3) Never been bumped (I rarely see oversolds) (4) Easy to use awards (flying my family free on thanksgiving this year) (5) soon-to-be CP holder, which means Mrs. Boraxo flies free. The last is a real cash-in-pocket benefit to those of us who can't expense most of our travel.

I feel bad for the kids that lost their father to a drunk driver. I feel bad for the woman whose boyfriend beat her 6-year old son to death.

I do not feel one ounce of pain for people who won't reach whatever grand poobah level they wanted/needed. As many have said, fly BIS if you want the status or commit to paying $$$ (UGS).

Every UA plane I have flown this year has been packed. UA clearly doesn't need to offer more bennies to max out loads, as was the case in prior years.

Just go back a few pages - it's all there.

some of us need it!
 

"If status is that important to you, do your flying sooner rather than later.Soon now, the weather will be getting bad and flights will get canceled. This will impact MRs. Don't chance it. Start early. Fly a lot. Then you won't care about the DEQM promo either."


Yes, but some of us have gotten "used to" the promotion, as our business/leisure travel only gets us to 70k or so. It's nice to have a trip that gets DEQMs at the end of the year to make up the difference.

That said, it is still an entitlement, and can't go on forever. I would like to re-stress, however, that the program makes money and builds loyalty for United, so it should continue.

I have to say I think United chose not to do it for a reason. I am willing to bet they thought about it long and hard, especially with the current market. Are they wrong? Maybe, but I really think they had a good reason for at least not trying it this year. Who knows, it might be back next year.

Whenever anyone says something like this I have to laugh. I have no idea whether it is true or not, but if you look at Uniteds financial performance over the past decade or for that matter the past quarter century, I think you could make a compelling argument that neither does the UAL management. There is absolutely no reason to assume they know what they are doing.