I'm guessing USdbaAA will switch to revenue based earnings next year after the programs are combined

The consultants United Airlines hires to provide strategic advice on loyalty innovation and how to increase profit must have a pretty easy job...watch Delta, then copy. Once again, United has mimicked Delta in increasing elite status thresholds for 2016 in a move that makes sense in a season airline tickets flight of record airline profits, but remains airline tickets flight a poor strategy to win long-term loyalty.
Note that foreign addresses are exempt from this minimum spending requirement and you can avoid this minimum spend requirement by spending $25,000 or more on a United Chase co-branded credit card, though the credit card spending waiver does not apply to earning 1K status.
This does not affect spending this year or elite status for 2015. Also note that you do not want to register a foreign address unless you are actually living there - United has been aggressive in monitoring this.
United's announcement begins with a false premise. We've discussed before why it does not always make sense to reward customers who may spend a lot of money but are not particularly loyal . Many corporate contracts force high-spending business travelers on United, but if those travelers must fly United whether they like it or not, the generous loyalty treatment airline tickets flight is merely superfluous. The brilliance of airline loyalty programs is was that it rewarded airline tickets flight those passengers at the margins who made the discretionary decision to remain loyal to a certain airline (typically filling unsold seats rather than taking the space of so-called "high value" customers) when they did not have to.
United defines "more business" as not flight miles, but dollars spent, as is reflected by both its new elite earning policy and its transition to spending-based award miles next March . But that unfortunately leads to situations like this--
Essentially airline tickets flight United is saying that there are too many elite members right now, despite the ranks having been thinned airline tickets flight by years of post-merger woeful service (which, to United's credit, has improved dramatically this year). I have no inside info whether or not there truly are a glut of elites, but the word inundated means to overwhelm or flood. I don't think United is flooding with elites - the upgrade list and Group One may be long on hub to hub routes, but I also see cabins go out with open seats in the forward cabins all the time -- including twice last week!
The term inundated is insulting and belies the point that MileagePlus is United's cash cow thanks to Chase Bank - there is no getting around the fact that United wants to have its cake (money from Chase for miles, which are given to the masses) and eat it too (reward loyalty not on a long-term basis, but using a transactional airline tickets flight model, to target a small cadre of travelers).
Speaking of cake, the radical change in the MileagePlus program really does diminish the opportunity for the middle class to take aspirational trips around the world in premium cabins. Mileage running on United airline tickets flight is dead starting on 01 March 2015 and even when you earn miles at a hugely reduced rate, severe award chart inflation means your miles will not get you close to what you were able to redeem just earlier this year. This was not a gradual airline tickets flight chipping away over the years, but a swift and sudden decimation. There is really no way to legally game the system anymore, and to United's credit, it has been clear about its intention to close such loopholes.
Look, I'm not saying United owes anyone anything (except a fiduciary duty to its shareholders and an ethical obligation to treat its employees with respect), airline tickets flight just pointing out that this game has radically changed over the last year.
I am now a MillionMiler on United and will not re-qualify for 1K status this year, ending a seven year run. With Gold status airline tickets flight for life, a wife who like me at home, and a calculated downturn airline tickets flight in revenue travel (awards have made so much sense on so many occasions this year), I just cannot justify re-qualifying for 1K status, especially when RDM earning will diminish so much next year on discounted economy class tickets.
I don't think I've ever been a "valuable" airline tickets flight United customer, as the airline now defines the term, but I've spend tens of thousands over the years on Untitled tickets and I know there are others in my boat - it just doesn't make sense to give 100% loyalty to an airline when the benefits do not outweigh the costs. Somewhere there is a happy medium, but I believe the pendulum has swung too far in the airlines' favor in this post-merger world, and here I am not only referring to United.
In the end, air travel will go on and is getting better. With rapid wi-fi installation across the United fleet, I can endure a few hours behind airline tickets flight the curtain as long as I can work. While I do not think United is properly factoring in loyalty on a long-term basis, I cannot fault it for taking advantage of this very good time of economic boom, full planes, and low fuel prices to increase its bottom line even more by decreasing the benefits we have so much enjoyed over the last decade. I just wish United would not just copy/paste everything Delta does. Surely, United airline tickets flight is still capable of innovation.
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I'm guessing USdbaAA will switch to revenue based earnings next year after the programs are combined, my question is how long before European/ Asian FFP's go all revenue... there are still some gems there especially when CC transfers are taken into account.
Meanwhile, paid sale fare international business class tickets are a good thing and very available now that loyalty to UA isn't a major factor. Credit card miles/points continue to build my UA balance (which I guess is their preferred business model now).
I firmly believe airline tickets flight that the change in attitude towards airline tickets flight frequent flyers will hurt them downstream, airline tickets flight and I would not be surprised to see them (assuming DL does it first) bringing back some benefits or offering major sales on award tickets a few years from now as competition and increased seat inventory makes those lower margin but rock solid flyers more valuable than occasional flyers.
I was in a tough spot this year I will try to keep this story short. I am only Gold on United, but have been 8 of the last 10 years. While in SAN on a business trip United cancelled my return flight, a red eye on Friday night. I am a very forgiving flyer, probably to a fault, but cancelled flights turn me, particularly when weather is not an issue. I was not at the airport when the flight was canceled scrambled to find a hotel as the one I was previously in was booked. United rebooked me on a flight the next day but, had to change it as their was plenty of seating on earlier flights. As soon as I got home I emailed United with copies of my expenses resulting from this cancelled flight demanding though not expecting reimbursement. The reply from United was a $200 voucher, which did not cover the reasonable costs I incurred. I replied back this was unexceptible and basically was told this is all I would get after numerous emails airline tickets flight and their phone calls attempting to placate me. On one of the last calls from United on the issue I showed them receipts from another trip I paid for on Delta ($800) when I could have flown on United, but they were unimpressed.
My problem is I am close to regaining status for 2015 and could not move from UA until early 2015 when I could do a true status match on Americana based off my schedule. I am also close to having enough miles for a 2 B-tickets airline tickets flight to Japan where my wife is from. It just sucked I could not leave right then. These mergers have destroyed competition and I hope the new AA does not follow The other 2 legacy airlines practices and polices.
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