If you haven’t heard, United has formally announced the changes to MileagePlus that will take affect next year. I am way late to the party in blogging about the changes, but my initial impression is that they really aren’t all that bad. One thing is for certain, four tier programs are officially in vogue. The new United will now have four tiers, Premier Silver, Premier Gold, Premier Platinum, and Premier 1K. Premier Silver is the basic tier, and from what I can tell, is the one that will see the most changes. Premier Silver members will now only be allowed one checked bag free of charge. and can only select Economy Plus seats at time of check in.
In other news, the bonus miles awarded will change for the typical mid-tier flier. Premier Gold members, the typical 50,000 mile flier, will now receive 50 percent bonus miles as opposed to the 100 percent bonus that United Premier Executives receive today. Premier Platinums, a new 75,000 mile or 90 segment tier will receive 75 percent bonus miles, and only Premier 1K’s or 100,000 mile or 120 segment tier members will receive 100 percent bonus miles. I think these new tiers align most closely with US Airways Dividend Miles.
Personally, I think it could have been worse, and rather than a lot of United members moving on to other programs like AAdvantage, Dividend Miles and SkyMiles, I have to wonder if the future of these programs isn’t headed towards looking a lot more like the new United program and Dividend Miles rather than AAdvantage and Delta SkyMiles. I have to give the new United MileagePlus a little more thought over the next few days before I say more. But believe me, I’ll have more to say.
The more I think about the new system, it seems pretty sensible all round. Personally I think the 75k tier is over-complicating, but I suppose it’s a legacy from CO. It would have been easier simply to award some upgrades on hitting 75k and be done with it.
The key is striking the right balance between frequent flyers who only buy cheap fares and occasional flyers who buy expensive fares (often working for companies and therefore potentially influencing many others). I think they’ve got this about right. My one gripe is with the credit card – its benefits seem to cut right across all the logic so carefully laid out in the overall rewards structure. I do recognise that UA is in hock big time to the credit card issuer, but the balance has moved way too far.
Very disappointing: gold vs. plat. status. Changing 100% bonus to 50% bonus is a DRASTIC cut, which makes a big difference over the months of air travel.
Adding that plat. status level really reduces a gold’s chance of upgrading on int’l. flt.s. You won’t be competing with just the 1K’s but ALL those plat. status members. This is VERY DISAPPOINTING.