United Airlines has announced plans to make changes to its MileagePlus program in 2025. Elite status will be harder to earn, though there are also some potentially positive changes.
Continue reading: United MileagePlus Changes 2025: Status Harder To Earn, But…
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Seems the requirements are in line with Delta now. At least the 1K/DM level. Wonder if United will get the same blowback lol
If AA does nothing else right, it structured its loyalty program right: create an incentive for customers to spend across all revenue channels. AA's hotel, rental car, and shopping portals are super high margin business segments -- all flowing to the bottom line. Other airlines need to get their minds around this concept.
Will the spending requirements on the credit card of 1 pqp for each $20 spent change automatically in the credit cards we have, or are the changes only for newly opened credit cards?
So I will finish this year with about 70 PQF's, but will be lucky to hit about 14k PQF's. I will lose my 1k status for first time since 2018. As I am set to retire next year, isn't that big of a deal, but now it's not an incentive to consider UA loyalty in my flights going forward. Not sure how UA benefits from this.
The key to status is getting people to “push” to the next level. In other words get people who otherwise would not spend/fly to do more to get the level they want. I will make gold this year from flying and a little bit of CC spend to push me over. Knowing there’s essentially no chance I’ll reach it next year no more CC spend for me and I’ll be more likely to use AF internationally. I wonder how many other threshold people will decide it’s not worth it…
Smart move.
OPM flyers will milk their travel budgets to reach the next threshold anyway by fiddling with someone elses money.
United will be cashing in on that.
"In fairness to United, the airline hasn’t otherwise increased its elite requirements since the new PQP and PQF program was announced in 2019"
This is not true, they increased the requirements in 2023
Find "Updates to the 2023 MileagePlus Premier program" on their blog: https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/mileageplus/whats-new.html
I agree with the fairness, plus airfare has increased over the last 2 years making it quite easy for an individual traveling an average amount to attain 1K status.
In reality UA should get 1K back to being an Elite Level, not so easily attained. Segments used to be 100 in a year so 60 is quite low. Increase minimum spend to $36K and then 1K’s would actually be able to use the or upgrades when desired.
And it should require flying 100,000 miles (or more)
None of these fake 1Ks who get 1K with 2 or 3 OPM trips to Europe.
I believe that 2023 announcement was atually just bringing back what was announced in 2019, but then greatly reduced/shelved in 2020-2022 due to the pandemic where either status was just rolled over or significantly reduced thresholds.
Honestly, as a United 1K I find this reasonable. There are way too many of us (me included, in theory). And airfare has increased - I passed the 18k spend threshold easily this year without really increasing my amount of flying (will fall short of the old 24k only PQD route).
I do wish they were a bit more liberal with other ways to earn beyond just CC spend, but also like that there is still a segments + spend route rather than making it just $$ based like their competitors.
On the whole, could've been worse.
Basically, this cannibalizes any loyalty to UA and only rewards spend like at Delta and American.
Would have liked a lower PQP threshold if you do achieve more PQFs. E.g. Silver (3,000 PQP + 25 PQF), Gold (6,000 PQP + 50 PQF), Platinum (10,000 PQP+ 75 PQF), 1K (15,000 PQP + 100 PQF).
Next thing you know UA will be devaluating what a PQF is.
I agree, wish the miles would still factor in, however that will never happen again because it is all now about revenue. That is why there are so many of us, years ago 1K was only for the most frequent travelers.
A bridge too far. I hopped off the UA MileagePlus status hamster wheel because I could no longer justify the cost. Rather than spending $24K or $28K a year to make 1K, why not just use the money to fly in premium cabins with any *A airline, some of which provide a better experience than one would get as a 1K? In fact, I have the best of all possible worlds because as a UA 1MM and lifetime Premier Gold, I enjoy *G benefits when flying with any *A carrier.
It doesn't cannibalize anything.... Thanks to the pandemic, rich people who "WFH" are working from anywhere and everywhere and flying United to get there. It's comical what upgrade lists look like these days compared to 2017 when it was MUCH easier to get status.
Agreed. Also good for them to requiring flying rather than credit card spend. What are they in the business of doing? Flying loyal customers and serving them or trying to be a credit card company? You could argue that United is exceptionally focused on serving customers right now and making them the heart of all their decisions while AA is focused on credit card deals and domestic destinations.
Expedia, Orbitz, Costco, and countless other agencies that package trips might disagree.... AA is supposed to make money flying planes and not trying to sell Air Fryers from Macy's through a shopping portal.
It's STILL much easer to access a United Club while bringing in a guest. Delta doesn't seem to have a handle on that.... Also, United never did the strange Delta Rollover madness. So, they have fewer people to upset. However, people like me will need to decide if Star Gold and complimentary economy plus at booking are still worth the expense.
This quote is why I left AA as a Concierge Key and now flying UA: “It’s interesting that United still hasn’t gone as far as American or Delta when it comes to being able to earn elite status exclusively through credit card spending.”
SO GLAD UA respects us who FLY FOR OUR STATUS versus those buying groceries & gas, getting upgraded and not knowing how to operate the seat in FC.
Agree, the spend isn’t that much of a stretch if you make a couple Polaris Asia/Pacific flights as well as all the new international destinations UA is now flying.
Exactly, and their inflight product & service shows they don’t care about the folks who fly, just the clowns that buy groceries and gas.
Hi Ben,
Reading about spending with UA-CCs, and getting PQPs, is there a way for Germans to get a UA Credit Card?
Thanks for helping.
Exactly. Poor OPM flyers whose employer buys Y are the only losers here.
People who pay fof their own tickets are flying up front more often without caring about status.
It's outright difficult for the "individual traveler" who typically only has 4-5 weeks of vacation time a year to attain 1K unless they add at least some business trips and/or never fly coach. Breaking down by a monthly average of 1k status for this year, you have to earn $1500/mo and 4.5/mo segments. Even most remote workers/digital nomads aren't taking multiple round-trip long hauls per month, they'll take a one-way long haul to somewhere like Bali and then take a short flight on an Asian airline to explore other Asian countries for months before flying home
I looked into this a bit ago, and without a US address and US social security number there does not appear to be a way to get a UA credit card.
What used to be a "frequent flyer program" now is a "sufficient payer program".
In other words, a genuine loyalty program became a "something around points" program.
That is United's choice. Me, I made 1K for a dozen years with 100+ kMiles in coach every year, went out of my way using United, and felt the deal was fair both ways. Now I am MM/UA*AG and a free agent with *A and beyond.
Again…if everyone is elite, nobody is elite.
Assuming my travel remains the same, this has zero impact on me. In my case, the card PQP increase offsets the higher total PQP requirement completely. If these rules had been in effect this year, I’d have hit 1K in late June instead on on June 1st. That’s effectively a “meh” from me unless it’s effective in knocking down the total number of elites.
1MM'er here since last year. I've done an insane amount of flying this year, due to father's illness on a different continent. I don't even qualify for platinum under the existing guidelines, let alone the new ones. In fact I wouldn't even be gold under the new limits. Hard to see how you get any status above silver without a *significant* dose of OPM, whether it's airfares or putting company spend on your chase visa. I'll need to wait for another industry downturn (or another million miles!) to see any status upgrade...!
United is making it increasingly difficult to stay loyal. After 20 years and half a million miles I find the reasons less and less compelling. 3/4 international flights were cancelled/delayed by at least a day. One being two days, another three days. One of the worst cancellation rates in the industry. The last two day delay received only $175 in credits not even covering my added expenses. More expensive flights with fewer options unless you live near a hub. Higher and higher requirements for same status. And credit cards don’t comare to delta… which has half the cancelled flights. Someone needs to wake United up.
I agree with all you suggest except I recognize almost every flight that there is way way too many 1K’s. My opinion is primarily based on having flown over the years just short of 4M miles, which I will pass in 2025. Until recent years 1K meant upgrades on most flights and very few pre boarding 1K versus in recent years feels like 20 percent of the flight are 1K’s.
By increasing requirements to achieve 1K, ideally the status will mean something again. My spend is about $60K each year & I am competing for upgrades with those spending basically a third of that.