Wow. New United MileagePlus sucks.

[GilliC]

Just received the email about the changes to United's MileagePlus program next year:

What's new: How you earn award miles
The award miles you earn on most United and United Express® tickets will be based on your ticket price (that is, base fare plus carrier-imposed surcharges). And when you have MileagePlus Premier® status, you'll earn even more miles.

Member -- 5 Award miles earned per dollar

Since so much of flight costs these days is taxes and fees, this means hardly any mileage.

Looking at a random trans-Atlantic trip for work in the past:
Total price: $1200
Airfare (excluding taxes): $780
New award mileage would be 3900 miles.
The actual mileage flown? 11,800 miles.
Ouch.

I guess it's time to use up my United miles and change programs.

[mdgirl]

Aren't they all going to this though? At least with United I've had good luck getting mileage tickets for flights I want.

[GilliC]

Jun 11, 2014 18:10:36 GMT -5 mdgirl said:

Aren't they all going to this though? At least with United I've had good luck getting mileage tickets for flights I want.

SAS and Lufthansa haven't yet, so I'll probably move my Star Alliance account to one of them.

[emilyinchile]

Isn't it awful? I have been talking about how I just want to get to million miler status on AA, and then I'll seriously consider switching to Star Alliance because Copa treats me SO much better as a silver member than AA does as platinum. I mean, I know upgrades depend on space, but I am still going to favor the airline that upgrades me 9 times out of 10 over the one that upgrades me never and basically laughs at me when I ask about getting on any kind of upgrade list. Now I probably won't even manage to stay silver this year!

mdgirl American isn't doing this...yet. United and Delta both are though.

[emilyinchile]

Jun 11, 2014 18:16:23 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Jun 11, 2014 18:10:36 GMT -5 mdgirl said:

Aren't they all going to this though? At least with United I've had good luck getting mileage tickets for flights I want.

SAS and Lufthansa haven't yet, so I'll probably move my Star Alliance account to one of them.

The shitty thing for me is that Copa is just straight-up MileagePlus rather than being a different, allied program. I need a fist-shaking emoticon!

And yes, @sfgal530, I agree. I have some miles to burn too. And even though AA denies that they're releasing fewer Mile SAAver awards these days (used to be super easy to get business class ones between SCL and SFO, now they'll have like 1 in a month) and says that people are just snatching them up quicker, I don't believe it. I had a little rant about how we pay so much money to be treated so poorly by both airlines and the TSA after my most recent trip. I miss the days of civilized air travel!

[mdgirl]

Jun 11, 2014 18:37:14 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Knock on wood Alaska's is still pretty good

We haven't had much luck getting mileage tickets on Alaska, but we have no status with them and we pretty much only look for tickets to Hawaii, which I'm sure are tough.

[Moe]

They all fucking suck.

All of them.

Hulk smash.

[Shreddingbetty]

United MP has really gone downhill since their merger with Continental. We are Premier so not very high status but it is impossible to get upgrades or even get the economy plus on the day of departure (whereas before that would happen regularly ) . Our last upgrade to business was when DD was 16 months old when we flew to Europe (so almost 3 years ago). She is officially Premier this year as well so it would be possible for all three of us to qualify for upgrades...if that were to ever happen again.
They should really change their name from mileage plus to Dollars plus if they don't go by miles flown anymore. They also really want you to use miles for merchandise and hotels etc instead of their flights and upgrades (which require a lot of money and few miles).
I suspect they are all gonna suck sooner or later

[Deleted]

I'm not surprised because of Delta, but it sucks.

I'm glad that my Citi Prestige card will make miles worthwhile.

[scout8]

Jun 11, 2014 18:44:38 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Jun 11, 2014 18:16:23 GMT -5 GilliC said:

SAS and Lufthansa haven't yet, so I'll probably move my Star Alliance account to one of them.

The shitty thing for me is that Copa is just straight-up MileagePlus rather than being a different, allied program. I need a fist-shaking emoticon!

And yes, @sfgal530, I agree. I have some miles to burn too. And even though AA denies that they're releasing fewer Mile SAAver awards these days (used to be super easy to get business class ones between SCL and SFO, now they'll have like 1 in a month) and says that people are just snatching them up quicker, I don't believe it. I had a little rant about how we pay so much money to be treated so poorly by both airlines and the TSA after my most recent trip. I miss the days of civilized air travel!

I agree! There is no question they don't have as many Mile SAAver business class tickets. We had planned to use AA miles to fly business this year and there were hardly any options at all. I think we had a choice of about three places and we were very flexible on dates.

Since we couldn't get business anywhere, we ended up getting miles tickets in coach to Santiago Chile, because they used so few points. So, Chile here we come! 

[GilliC]

Jun 11, 2014 22:13:08 GMT -5 Shreddingbetty said:

United MP has really gone downhill since their merger with Continental. We are Premier so not very high status but it is impossible to get upgrades or even get the economy plus on the day of departure (whereas before that would happen regularly ) . Our last upgrade to business was when DD was 16 months old when we flew to Europe (so almost 3 years ago). She is officially Premier this year as well so it would be possible for all three of us to qualify for upgrades...if that were to ever happen again.
They should really change their name from mileage plus to Dollars plus if they don't go by miles flown anymore. They also really want you to use miles for merchandise and hotels etc instead of their flights and upgrades (which require a lot of money and few miles).
I suspect they are all gonna suck sooner or later

LOL at DollarsPlus!

Our local LCC (Norwegian) has always had a spend-based rewards scheme, so they just call them "points." I wouldn't be surprised to see that change becoming more common in program documentation, but I think the term "frequent flier miles" is too ingrained for marketing to abandon it without a serious hit.

It was a little different here, because anti-monopoly legislation blocked mileage accrual on domestic flights until recently. And they're a low-cost carrier anyway, so you also earned points from purchasing food, etc on board.

[GilliC]

I'm also curious what's going to happen when everyone stops qualifying for status. A lot of businesses buy discounted fares to save money, so surely this is affecting business travelers as well. Like @mx, my platinum qualification might not even have netted me silver. Flying internationally, the gold perks (esp. lounge access) are a major consideration when choosing flights, and definitely kept me in network. Without them, I would have chosen other airlines quite often, especially when they were cheaper!

I think Delta's program made fewer waves in the international business market because of additional corporate schemes like FlyingBlue Petroleum. A lot of my colleagues just stuck to KLM and Air France, because they didn't need status for lounge access on long work trips. I wonder if in time we'll start to see more of these corporate agreements replacing status perks.

[CloudBee]

I've never had great luck with mileage programs. I cash in for things like rental cars.

[emilyinchile]

Jun 12, 2014 7:54:59 GMT -5 GilliC said:

I'm also curious what's going to happen when everyone stops qualifying for status.

This is interesting to me because on my last trip I was thinking how nowadays so many people have at least the lowest status on their airline that some of the benefits aren't that great. One priority security line I went through, for example, had more people than the regular line. So I guess for those who still make it to an elite tier, things might actually improve since there will be fewer other people at that level.

scout8 let me know if you have Chile questions! Can't remember if we've talked about this or not.

[scout8]

Jun 12, 2014 9:16:18 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Jun 12, 2014 7:54:59 GMT -5 GilliC said:

I'm also curious what's going to happen when everyone stops qualifying for status.

This is interesting to me because on my last trip I was thinking how nowadays so many people have at least the lowest status on their airline that some of the benefits aren't that great. One priority security line I went through, for example, had more people than the regular line. So I guess for those who still make it to an elite tier, things might actually improve since there will be fewer other people at that level.

scout8 let me know if you have Chile questions! Can't remember if we've talked about this or not.

I am sure I will have questions for you. We are still getting everything planned. Trip isn't until late October. We plan to spend time around Santiago & Valparaiso, the lake district (Varas & Chiloe), and southern Patagonia/Torres del Paine. We will be there for three weeks. I am very excited!

[GilliC]

Jun 12, 2014 9:16:18 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Jun 12, 2014 7:54:59 GMT -5 GilliC said:

I'm also curious what's going to happen when everyone stops qualifying for status.

This is interesting to me because on my last trip I was thinking how nowadays so many people have at least the lowest status on their airline that some of the benefits aren't that great. One priority security line I went through, for example, had more people than the regular line. So I guess for those who still make it to an elite tier, things might actually improve since there will be fewer other people at that level.

Was this in the US? United has been giving basic premiere access to anyone who pays for their credit card, so the elite security lines are a joke and the lounge is super crowded because everyone gets a few complimentary passes.
Since Gold status transfers across the network, I've found that it's a lot more useful at international airports where there are fewer pseudo-silvers. I had silver United status last year and didn't even realize since it's kind of useless.

[emilyinchile]

Yes, GilliC. I can't remember if it was SFO, SJC or DFW (too many airports!), but between the credit card holders and the business travelers I wasn't surprised.

[Brit]

Jun 11, 2014 18:10:36 GMT -5 mdgirl said:

Aren't they all going to this though? At least with United I've had good luck getting mileage tickets for flights I want.

We just bought tickets to the US like seven months out, I am Gold and H is 1K and we couldn't even use our system wide upgrades because they didn't have any more available. Sounds fishy to me.