Scott O’Leary announced details of the new United Mileage Plus program for 2012 this morning on Milepoint.
Here are the key changes, which aren’t as bad as feared but which have a couple of real key negatives from my perspective.
- United will go to a 4-tier elite program as expected — 25,000 miles, 50,000 miles, 75,000 miles, and 100,000 miles (plus Global Services). They will begin requiring a minimum of 4 United, Continental, or COPA flights to earn status, so both people that are earning United status from Air Canada or bmi flights alone will no longer be able to do so. They are not introducing a minimum revenue component to elite status qualification, as had been speculated.
- Reduced elite bonuses. Elites flying 50,000 – 99,999 miles per year will receive less than their current 100% mileage bonus. 50k mile flyers will earn a 50% bonus and and 75k mile elite flyers will earn a 75% bonus.
- Increased class of service bonuses. Full fare coach will earn a 25% bonus, discount business 50%, full business and 2-cabin first will earn 75%, and 3-cabin first will earn 150%.
- The Continental method for determining what routes get complimentary elite upgrades. If it’s an international flight product, there’s no complimentary upgrade. If it’s a domestic premium product, it’s eligible for complimentary upgrade. So New York JFK – San Francisco/Los Angeles won’t get complimentary upgrades (as it’s been, though I wonder what will happen from Newark to these markets). Newark and Houston to Hawaii aren’t eligible for upgrades but the California and Chicago flights are. Intra-Asia narrowbody flights will become complimentary upgrade eligible.
- Elites will be eligible for instant upgrade at booking on full (Y and B) fares. 1Ks will be eligible for instant upgrade from M fares as well. Full Y fares will upgrade into revenue buckets, while B and M fares will be moved into upgrade inventory if available, though a new and more generous upgrade inventory than that used for other upgrade instruments or for complimentary upgrades.
- New upgrade windows. 1Ks will upgrade 96 hours out instead of 100; 50,000-mile flyers will upgrade 48 hours out and Premiers at 24 hours out.
- New upgrade hierarchy:
Global Services
Y/B/M instant upgrades that weren’t confirmed in advance (sorted by fare class then premier tier)
Paid upgrades (i.e. GPUs, RPUs and mileage upgrades) sorted by status, fare class, and date of waitlist
All remaining premier customers by status, then fare classSo full fare trumps status and upgrades paid for with certificates or miles trump status. (Although status matters within each category). This, to me, is the worst change of all — a 100,000 mile flyer is upgraded after a non-status flyer using miles. A 100,000-mile flyer using miles or certificates is upgraded after a B fare 25,000-mile flyer.
- Premiers will get economy plus seating only 24 hours in advance, no longer at booking.
- Good news on the lifetime elite program. Miles from Continental and United will be combined, including all elite qualifying miles (not just flown miles) from Continental. Going forward it’s butt-in-seat miles only. And whereas Continental gave lifetime Silver at 1 million miles and United lifetime Premier Executive (mid-tier), they’ve determined that going forward 1 million gets lifetime 50,000-mile status, 2 million gets lifetime 75,000-mile status and 3 million gets lifetime 1K, and 4 million gets lifetime Global Services. And they’re adding a spouse benefit, spouse gets same elite level as the lifetime member. Further, Continental’s lifetime Platinum members from the old Infinite Elite program get lifetime 1K.
These changes will be rolling out over the first quarter of 2012, rather than all at once on February 1. That means they’ll be extending the current elite year slightly, details forthcoming, since the new program won’t be ready to roll out from an IT perspective when the new elite year is supposed to begin.
Bottom-line is a huge reduction in value for mere 25,000-mile flyers in no longer having access to Economy Plus at booking, this was the key differentiator for lower level elites who choose United for economy plus over regular coach on other airlines.
And a huge reduction in value for loyalty across the year rather than profitability on a single given trip by prioritizing full fare over status for upgrades, and prioritizing willingness for a member to spend miles on a single trip over status for upgrades.
I think these two changes are a mistake for United, certainly full fare occasional passengers will disagree. The rest of the changes, roughly speaking, make sense to me.
Yikes…I wonder if we’ll start seeing some people bail out to AA over this.
They just need to exclude government fares, like the old UA complimentary upgrade program did. Then it makes perfect sense. Except for that, these changes don’t seem bad at all.
I disagree on the instrument/mileage trumping status change. Right now upgrades using miles is basically a worthless instrument for GMs, and was (is) probably the second biggest draw of the appeal of the UA cc. This gives these very occasional flyers an actual shot at using their miles. Which will keep them using their UA credit cards. And it is certainly clear to what extent UA is funded by branded credit cards…
For getting upgrades on transcons and to Hawaii its going to be pretty bad, even for a 1K. The value proposition for the average domestic road warrior 1K/PE is mostly gone.
I’m at 50-75k flyer and I’ll be looking for a new program that gives me a 100% mileage bonus and similar value award chart. United is destroying a lot of value on this change.
As a current UA 1P who will probably only make Premier Silver in 2012, I’m jumping ship to AA. At least AA Golds can still reserve exit rows. Besides, I’ve had horrible luck with UDUs as a 1P.
At least it ain’t no Southwest Airlines or NetFlix fiasco!
They have taken away my only benefit (E+) as a 1P. Hello AA.
Well, at least I’ll make 1MM without having to do anything now. but, that benefit will be diluted a bit and not just because there will be a LOT of additional 1MM flyers to comete with. But, it could be worse, it could have been lifetime silver, which went away since under the new silver rules would be WORTHLESS!!!!!
Terrible changes. They already removed most of the reason 2P is useful via a $100 credit card. Now there’s next to nothing left. As a 2P borderline 1P I see no reason to continue using United next year.
Demoting folks from 1P to Gold based on the 50-75K mark is a bad idea – they should have been grandfathered Platinum for the next year.
@Dan Morgan 50k mile flyers can still book E+ when ticketing, it’s only 2Ps that have to wait until 24 hours out.
@ Mike R: Why would you turn people who never qualified for Platinum into Platinums?
@Gary – as a Hawaii 1k, bad news on the upgrade priority, as I will now be behind the occasional traveler using miles to upgrade on that leisure route. But are my regional upgrades considered paid upgrades, thus higher priority than the leisure travelers?
@Carl your regional upgrades are of the paid upgrade variety for this purpose, using one of those your status will trump others looking fro complimentary upgrades and lower-tier (and non-)elites using miles.
Thinking about it now a spend requirement would have been preferable to having more uncertainty about whether my upgrade will clear or not.
@NIck the earlier speculation was that we were going to get BOTH!
Nothing but bad news for me as 1P and even worse for my wife who will be 2P next year. And if we travel together but ticket separately then no longer a guarantee we can even sit together!!!
Well goodbye United hello Usair, no economy plus at booking is a deal breaker for me. This is lousy since I have no qualifying flightson Usair and need to start all over.
They did not mention it in the FT/MP post, but Platinums and higher will get “free” Global Entry in the form of reimbursement. That is a nice new perk.
The wording is not clear, but it seems that now we can use the RPU on the Hawaii long hauls that have BF service just like the PS flights?
“RPUs will be eligible in these same markets plus our p.s. and all Mainland U.S.-Hawaii markets.”
@Golfingboy yeah I assume confirmed regionals will be valid on Newark and Houston – Honolulu. The reimbursed Global Entry is a modest benefit, really not that exciting, it’s a throw-in which is also thrown in on the Amex Plat card.
I think the changes seem fairly sensible. I have always thought it ridiculous that loyal low-fare passengers swan it over occasional full fare passengers.
On the question of E+ for 2P customers, I wonder how many will defect. No other airline offers this and so 2P customers are better off still with UA – access to E+ (and remember seats change around at the last minute as upgrades are processed and connections are missed) with the option to stick in a previously reserved seat if preferable.
@NB 1Ks on an H fare are below Premiers on a B fare. Nothing bottom-feeding about that. General member non-elites spending miles to upgrade a deep discount T or S fare are also ahead of 1Ks on a pricey H fare. THIS CHANGE ISN’T ABOUT SHIFTING BENEFITS AWAY FROM LOW REVENUE ELITES it is about shifting from a portfolio view of the value of a customer over time (loyalty) or a transaction-based view where what matters most is what ticket you’re on today. And that doesn’t even suggest that the program is influencing purchasing decisions, they’d rather reward a B fare they’re getting anyway from an infrequent customer over a 1K giving United their full flying. That’s why I think it’s a bad move.
These changes have validated my decision to move to a miles agnostic attitude. I fly around 25k a year and I was getting the E+ at booking. Now I get to wait for 24 hours out? I don’t like it. The routes I’m on UA faces competition from Alaska, Delta, and Frontier (WN too.. but I’d rather kill myself). So now it will be price and amenities, FF points can get stuffed.
I’ve never redeemed miles for domestic upgrades, so I’m unfamiliar with the process. If I’m understanding the UA chart, though, it seems like it costs 20,000 miles + $75 for a one-way domestic upgrade on a cheap fare. True? If so, as a 1K, I’m not too worried about this. Realistically, how many people will want to pay that?
@iaphx probably one or two passengers per flight, possibly going on their honeymoon trip or annual vacation. Add this to the couple of full fares and as 1K you’re several spots further back in the upgrade queue. To me they are basically saying that the $10k to $20K+ a 1K may spend just doesn’t mean that much, and I guess the reality is that it doesn’t.
Nick — I guess that could theoretically happen on a transcon, but isn’t it far more likely that these travellers simply redeem for domestic FC? Isn’t that only 50,000 miles ROUNDTRIP?
Two questions that haven’t been addressed that need to be: 1) how companion upgrades will be processed going forward (ie do you need to be on a single reservation – or co style? perfect world scenario is delta style (sep ressies okay, but processed automatically), but at 24 hours out rather than 12 (just a weird number) and 2) whether companions on the same/separate PNR will get E+ the way they do today.
fly 15k miles, get silver and econ plus… what will be for sale next?
https://store.united.com/traveloptions/control/upsell;jsessionid=0E2F7E93B122CBB955EBB66DD7E8AC1B.jvm1?product_id=UM_EPA_PFT&category_id=UM_LEGRM
Thanks for the analysis! I agree with you on almost everything :p
I fully support having elites on Y fare being booked directly in F, but B/M-Ups not so much. With CO it was not too horrible, because the # of elites who purchases those fares on a regular basis is not too significant except on EWR-LAX/SFO, but now throw in UA elites, that # just grew into something more significant. At the same time, several months ago B/M fares on CO have skyrocketed and I hope it stays that way. We will see how that impacts our upgrades in mid-2012.
Non-status passengers being able to trump elites waiting for CPU using miles is a downer… I think they should have priority with SWUs and RPUs [CR1s] since it is coming from someone with status. I applied my SWUs for my mom on a $1800 ticket LAX-GVA on UA and she went 0/4 on upgrades. Saturday outbound and Sunday return, which was rather disappointing. We did not have much choice on dates since she was tagging along with dad on a business trip. I guess it is a YMMV and depends on how we use our upgrade instruments.
@sjs processed automatically if on the same reservation, at the airport on different reservations.
Looks like Luckycoins’ source was not so correct on the revenue model. Controlled leak.
I just became a UA ONE Million Miler, that gives my currently lifetime Premier Executive. Will the ” new 2012 lifetime membership program ” change my status and downgrade me ??
I hope not !!! Any idea ????
@Jason H – +1
Most of my domestic travel is CA, so I think I’ll be buying up to E+ going forward. Can’t bring myself to go back to Southwest.
From the “Upgrade Regions Chart” regarding the UDU(now CPU) for intra-asia flights, I think the flights of NRT-ICN or NRT-TPE or NRT-HKG or HKG-SGN etc are also eligible for UDU right? Even some of them are operated by wide-bodies.
Gary, you mentioned the miles for qualification. What about EQS? Are they still allowing segment qualification for those of us who might fly 150 segments and still not hit 100,000 miles? Or did they do away with segments?
………and I just saw on their site that the segment requirements remain the same.
Upgrade order only mentions Y/B-upgrade fares. This means a GM on a Y fare doesn’t trump you, only a silver on a B fare.
@ralf, don’t worry you will get lifetime Premier Gold and the nice thing about the new program is if you have a spouse, your spouse will also receive Gold status! That is one of the more positive change about the new program.
The part I am unsure about how GS will trump lower elites on Y fare. I am not sure how that will work, because the thing about Y fares is that it books DIRECTLY into any open F inventory, so if there is only 1 F seat left 72 hours out, but no upgrade inventory the elite on the Y fare will get the F seat [not sure if it is automatic, but you can process it manually thru your PNR online] unless they modify the program to book all GS members still in Y directly into open F inventory [not R or ZE] under 120 hours.
The big downside to me is the 100% rdm bonus for premiere executive getting cut to 50%. I qualified for premiere exec thinking I’d get 100% bonus for next year and now it’s getting cut out without even being able to use it for next year! I originally thought this new plan would be for requalification in 2012 and going into effect in 2013
When this story first broke and everyone was freaking out, I can swear that I read on this blog that any changes would apply to qualifying in 2012 for 2013. Is that not the case?
So, you mean that after flying almost all of 2011 with the expectation of earning certain privileges for 2012, they are going to change the rules on us? When do 1Ps lose the E+ benefit?
I was considering going for Exec Plat. Is there any point now?
@JA 1Ps do not lose E+, 2Ps lose it at booking and can confirm only 24 hours out. In 2012. What was supposed to change only for 2013 was the qualification scheme, if they went revenue-based. The benefits were always going to change for 2012 which is what vexed me so at that time…
As a CO Silver I will essentially have the same benefits as someone who pays $85 for a Explorer credit card (despite me paying $395 for a Presidential Plus credit card).
Seriously, I feel no value and loyalty from the new United right now! I should just switch to AA or DL, and get the CO credit card. Then I essentially keep the same CO benefits and now get elite on another airline.
Even with these changes, it’s still a better program than SkyPesos… Something folks in Atlanta must not be pleased about today.
@Gary,
Regarding 1MM status, I currently have ~ 950k UA Lifetime flight miles, and I have > 50K miles in my CO account, all from a CO credit card sign-up bonus. When they combine balances for 1MM status, I will get lifetime gold, right?
Am I loosing anything by waiting and not increasing my UA lifetime total to 1MM before the end of the year?
Thanks,
David
@LIH Prem I assume CO EQMs means CO EQMs. I assume that your CO credit card signup bonus are NOT EQMs. So you don’t get lifetime Gold until you’ve flown 50k more miles.
@Gary,
Look at the “one time recalibration” section here:
http://mileageplusmergerupdates.com/en/mp/MileagePlusin2012/MillionMilerProgram
Is my interpretation wrong, even with that?
-David
@Gary,
They didn’t say which fares are GPU-able, did they?
-David
@Gary,
So even if I get nothing from CO, my EQM total will go up with the one time adjustment. Just hope it goes up by at least 50k or so.
-David