United is nerfing its business class product this month, by charging customers who opt for the lowest fare for seat assignments, eliminating changes, and banning them from its Polaris lounges (relegating them to standard United Clubs).
But they’re actually doing even more than this.
- They’re restricting mileage-earning, too. So-called Basic Business tickets (and Basic premium economy) will be just like Basic Economy. They will not earn any miles if you do not have MileagePlus status or their credit card.
- And these business class (or premium economy) flights will not count towards MileagePlus status, either. They will earn Premier Qualifying Points (they add to your dollars spent for status) but will not earn Premier Qualifying Flights.
Prince of Travel was first to flag the restriction on elite status-earning for basic business fares, while Executive Traveller was first to confirm that United would treat basic business and premium plus tickets the same as basic economy for redeeming mileage-earning.
Low/No Mileage-Earning For Basic Business
United eliminated mileage-earning on basic fares for general members without the credit card, effective April 2 – and deducted those 3 miles per dollar previously earned on basic (economy) fares from everyone else’s earning as well.
As a result, general members with a credit card will earn 3 miles per dollar on basic fares. And those with status earn:
- Silver: 2 miles per dollar, but 5 if they have the credit card
- Gold: 3 miles per dollar, but 6 if they have the credit card
- Platinum: 4 miles per dollar, but 7 if they have the credit card
- 1K: 6 miles per dollar, but 9 if they have the credit card
This turns out not to apply just to basic economy – as United first announced – but to all ‘basic’ fares regardless of cabin.
Miles Earned On Non-Basic Business Tickets
This shift follows United reducing mileage-earning for customers without a credit card by 2 miles per dollar, and increasing earning for those who have one by 1 mile per dollar. (MileagePlus isn’t of competitive value in markets outside the United States where United doesn’t offer a card, and odd positioning for the U.S. airline flying to the most foreign destinations.)
That means standard (non-basic) business class tickets earn as follows:
| Status | Pre-April 2 Earning | New Base Earning | New Cardmember Earning | ||
| General member | 5 miles/$ | 3 miles/$ | 6 miles/$ | ||
| Premier Silver | 7 miles/$ | 5 miles/$ | 8 miles/$ | ||
| Premier Gold | 8 miles/$ | 6 miles/$ | 9 miles/$ | ||
| Premier Platinum | 9 miles/$ | 7 miles/$ | 10 miles/$ | ||
| Premier 1K | 11 miles/$ | 9 miles/$ | 12 miles/$ |
They took away as much as 40% of mileage-earning (from base members) while giving as little as 9% more (to 1Ks with a credit card). But this allowed United to say that ‘cardmembers can earn twice as much as non-cardmembers’ (general member).
Changes To Status-Earning
United has two paths to MileagePlus status: spend-only (‘premier qualifying dollars or PQDs’) and a lower spend requirement with a minimum number of flights (‘PQDs + PQFs’). Here’s the current requirement for status. “Basic” fares will count towards the total spent with the airline for the year, but will not count as a flight taken.
| Status | Spend-Only | Spend + Flights | ||
| Silver | $6,000 | $5,000 + 15 Flights | ||
| Gold | $12,000 | $10,000 + 30 Flights | ||
| Platinum | $18,000 | $15,000 + 45 Flights | ||
| 1K | $28,000 | $22,000 + 60 Flights |
What Will Delta Do?
At the same price, American Airlines and Delta (and JetBlue, Alaska, etc.) represent a better value than United when buying these least expensive premium tickets. Their fares do not currently come with the same restrictions.
Delta has said they’re going to introduce basic fares to business and premium economy, but they haven’t said what restrictions will come with their basic fares. However, if they see share shift away from United in markets where they compete such as New York and Los Angeles, Delta could reconsider. If they’re winning business because customers prefer the better value of Delta’s business class, they’d be foolish to change.
More likely than not, though, Delta goes through with its planned changes. They, too, want to fill empty business class seats without cannibalizing the higher fares customers pay. And customers may not even realize that airlines which aren’t imposing these restrictions represent the better value – if they’re shown schedule and price when comparing, and largely assuming that ‘all airlines are the same’ (or just not realizing that United has imposed these new restrictions).
British Airways started charging most customers extra for business class seat selection in 2009, and passengers are still surprised by the fee after they’ve purchased their tickets!
However smart consumers should make sure they understand the difference in fare rules – and when prices are the same consider booking away from United Airlines basic business, at least as long as other airlines aren’t imposing the same restrictions.
After all, United’s business class seat isn’t better than Delta’s except on Delta 767s. And it isn’t better than American’s on any widebody aircraft. American’s food is even better! Delta’s business class lounges are better than United’s! United does serve better wine, though.
Hard pass. This is why I always book the non-US partner for international long haul.
“What Will Delta Do?” Mhm, because where there’s one roach, there’s usually others… You’d better believe all US legacy carriers are gonna follow (just like with the recent checked bag increases). This is a major blow for all of us (unless you only fly J full-fare on OPM).
@lavanderialarry — 100%. This is the way. For me: Europe? European airlines. S. America? LATAM. Africa or S. Asia? Qatar. (Well, not anytime soon.) E. Asia? JL, NH, SQ, BR, etc. Oceania? QF. Better service, usually, too. Credit all of these back to your US carriers, if you must.
I find it hard to believe that more than a tiny percentage of travelers would understand or be interested in the complexities of earning frequent flyer miles for their flights. Frankly, other than credit card sign up bonuses, trying to earn miles seems like a waste of time. I wonder if the airlines are killing the golden goose.
@Chopsticks — Maybe. But, tell them they won’t get access to the ‘nice’ lounge, all because of a new ‘gotcha’ on the ticket type. Then, they’ll revolt. “But, I’m in Business Class, why can’t I go to the Business lounge?” (Oof, those lounge check-in agents are gonna get an earful from some upset Boomers. Have your cell phone cameras ready to catch the burnouts! Post ’em so Gary can comment. We await your outrage, sirs and madams and others.)
Retirement: the gift that keeps on giving. First hotels decimate their programs. Airlines follow. Now they are a waste of effort.
What @ Ray says! Staying home is the new trend for 2026. The greed of these companies, combined with higher fuel costs, will lead to some pretty poor results for travel companies. It will take 6-9 months to work its way through the system, but it will be interesting to watch this, while the orange blob implodes. Stay tuned.
This is just phase 1. These carriers are good at slowly squeezing more and more as time passes. I wonder if there is a tipping point where these dolts who load up on airline credit cards and wait in long lines for lounge access wake the eff up.
These programs follow pricing science, and somewhere at United, there’s someone with a spreadsheet that shows that they can push these levers and make more profit. For the points-chasers, those folks will potentially exit the program and United will call that planned breakage (and it’s part of the math in the spreadsheet). United will profit from these decisions (at least according to the latest spreadsheet and assumptions).
Loyalty is productive if the benefits are worth one’s time. The airlines killed loyalty for me a long time ago. I buy the cheapest first class domestic nonstop, and it’s rarely on United. Points are worthless.
BUT… if United’s ‘basic’ gets me the cheapest Biz option overseas…I will look at it. Interestingly, with Zipair out of Houston, I’ll never fly United to Tokyo again.
@Gene — *grabs popcorn*
But more importantly…
Did the gate agents make passengers start gate-checking bags even though there was still room in the overhead bins???
I mean… it’s been at least a week since you’ve written about that!
Yes, we hear you, @Gene. It’s much safer in Mom’s basement. Orange man bad.
Whatever the pros and cons of these fares, saying these flights “will not count towards MileagePlus status” is pretty clearly inaccurate. You still earn PQPs, and there is an earning chart that lets you earn status based solely on PQPs, so you could earn 1K even if you only ever flew on these fares.
You just earn potentially at a slower rate, if you’d otherwise be earning enough PQFs to qualify for status at a lower PQP threshold.
Do you know if these basic Business flights will count towards million mile status?
Well this sucks. Next I’m guessing that all the major U.S. airlines will start charging for food and $25 per alcoholic beverage on board in business class. At this point I’m starting to become much warmer to the idea of Congress banning credit card rewards altogether. It’s likely the only thing that can truly turn this trend around.
Airlines are taking customers for granted. Short of retirement, we need to root for the next recession.
@1900: Right, because it’s the “Boomers” who post their entitled angst about their 1st world travel problems on social media. I’m looking at you, Millennials.
Full disclosure: GenX here.
Airlines: *(creates cheaper category of Business Class fare type)
Also Airlines: *(leaves traditional Business Class category features unchanged)
Passengers: *(act SHOCKED! when new, cheaper Business Class category comes with fewer amenities than traditional Business Class does)
@Sarah M. — Oh, pardon me for the inter-generational warfare there. You’re absolutely correct that there are teenagers and octogenarians alike who will also be pissed by this devaluation. Bah! Let’s attack the extreme, not each other. Unite the middle (and forgotten) generations… /s
@James — You’re naive to think that everything is the same here. But, fine, ignore the details, you do you. Pay the same price for ‘basic’ business class; but get no Polaris lounge access, and who needs status earning anyway (PlusPoints don’t clear, dying on the waitlist isn’t fun, etc.). Enjoy that. United Club is probably just fine for you, right? (Ooh, they got little stroopwaffles. Yum…)
I suspect the devil will be in the details, but, personally, I’d only consider basic business class if the pricer were a lot lower than regular business class – which I think it will likely not be. Also, I tend to think basic economy attracts people who would do just about anything to save twenty bucks. I don’t know that the market for business class has many of those.
@James, that’s not the way it works. The new fare classes remove the benefits at the same prices that existed before and call them “Basic” (they do not lower the fares to create a cheaper ticket). So the choice becomes pay the fares you used to pay with all of the benefits removed, or spend $X more per ticket to get everything you used to get.
So yeah, passengers should be genuinely shocked and angry when the fares that are comparable to what they used to pay get everything stripped away.
@Arthur, the pricing is live today in some markets US-South America. In all cases so far, it’s a flat $400 per ticket to “get out of basic jail”. It’s not a nominal amount.
FAFO QED.
Hilarious – confirming why I will pick a partner Intl airline to earn from now on
Almost worthwhile to actually get your lifetime status on the US carrier, THEN CREATE a FF account on that partner and earn mid-tier elite through them
“I find it hard to believe that more than a tiny percentage of travelers would understand or be interested in the complexities of earning frequent flyer miles for their flights.” Yes, and that (not so tiny IMHO) percentage are the ones buying J.
@This comes to mind — Does this mean you’ll scale back, or still gonna make the annual trips to from Ohio to Europe and Down Under, regardless?
The headline is a little off. You still get full EQD credit for the spend, which is really what counts for people taking biz class TATL and TPAC (these elites aren’t qualifying with cheapo segments).
As for the RDM earning, it’s presumably not zero as anyone paying $$$$ to fly biz class presumably can afford a $150 AF on a credit card. If you aren’t a frequent UA traveler then will you really care if you earn fewer miles?
That said the reduced EQM on expensive “basic” fares is stupid and it’s not smart of UA to annoy its best customers. As Gold if I’m paying $4k to fly biz I would certainly prefer 32k RDM rather than 24k RDM but of course I would have to compare with the alternative (SQ, LH?) and might still prefer UA miles to skypesos. To be fair biz class RDM have always been based on fares with some fares earning more… but extorting $150 just to get a decent earn rate is a bad look.
Bastian is furious that he didn’t roll out this screw job first.
Vows to rollout meal free Ultra Basic First.
I don’t think a $400 RT difference is going to look like a very big saving to someone who is paying cash for business. If that is all it is, I can usually find another airline with regular business class cheaper than what UA will be charging for its basic business. Of course, that is why I am no longer 1K and fly other airlines a lot internationally (both saving money and enjoying a better soft product).
Hopefully they block carry-ons too.
why would you NOT have a mileage number? .. Just like the new starlink.. its free with your mileage number. EASY PEASY