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As I’ve written about last month, I was waiting to hear if I made the cut for United’s invitation-only elite status, Global Services®.
United’s MyStatus site was down since last night as they updated Premier levels and it refreshed this afternoon.
The site is now live again and I saw the news there (and via an email that United sent me) to inform me that I had not made Global Services® for 2023. I can’t say that I’m surprised, as I did stray a lot in 2022 with flights on Delta, Air France, KLM, as well as TAP Portugal, SWISS, Lufthansa, and Aegean. I wrote more about this here.
Here is the full text of the email:
We appreciate your commitment to United® and thank you for making us your airline of choice so often throughout the years.
Based on your flight activity, we’re unable to offer you United Global Services® status for 2023. However, we’d like to welcome you to Premier® 1K®, our highest published status level that will still provide you with exclusive benefits. You’ll continue to enjoy United Global Services benefits through January 31, 2023. After that, you will be welcomed to Premier 1K status with 280 PlusPoints for flexible and customizable upgrades, 11 award miles for every dollar spent on United flights and even more benefits that are designed to elevate every flight.
We consider many factors when finalizing United Global Services invitations, including how much each top Premier member has spent on United flights over the last few years. We determine our invitation criteria annually based on the travels of our top United Global Services members. Our criteria has been adjusted to reflect a strong return to travel in 2022, which is expected to continue through 2023 and beyond. We’ll monitor your travel activity in 2023 with the hopes of being able to welcome you back to United Global Services in 2024. On behalf of everyone at United, we greatly appreciate your loyalty and wish you all the best in your travels.
Best regards,
Your MileagePlus team
My Strategy for 2023
I wrote about my plans for 2023 here. Now that I know that United has not renewed my Global Services® status, I am going to push for Diamond Medallion® on Delta and will likely still be able to qualify for 1K® on United. The first quarter of this year, I have multiple Delta flights booked as well as a few on Silver Airways, Breeze Airways, and even Spirit Airlines to test out some new things including the Big Front Seat. More about that here.
Soft Landings
Several FlyerTalk members are reporting that even though they did not qualify for Global Services® or 1K® that United is giving them a soft landing to 1K® including all of the benefits and PlusPoints. On the one hand this is a nice gesture, but on the other many people did qualify (myself included) and it dilutes the benefits of having the status some.
Anthony’s Take: Part of me is sad as I have held this status for many years. But, like my Marriott Ambassador status that I let slip in 2022, I just don’t see the value I once did in holding it. I have had to make sure that I spent enough money every year and in many cases spent extra for higher fare classes (in business or first) in order to maintain it. I wasn’t looking for upgrades and using the dedicated lobbies and being able to pre-board isn’t enough to justify it. Even if I don’t step foot on enough planes to qualify, I know I’ll have Premier Gold® and Star Alliance Gold at a minimum based on my Million-Miler status. This is not goodbye, United, but it is so long for now.
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5 comments
United does appear to be incrementally spending a little more on the meal service now. But it doesn’t seem like they’ll ever be competing for first place in domestic catering, short or long haul.
I don’t see how it would have been possible to spend less (maybe gas station hot dogs?).
I would be interested to see the cost difference for airlines between the best J in flight Do&Co meals vs gate gourmet and the other caterers.
I’ve really had it with United. After being global services for several years, I seem to be stuck at 1k. I flew nearly 250k actual miles with them last year, have 49kPQP and 128kPQF. Ok I can get over not being GS, but they have made 1k so easy and universal it basically means nothing.
So for
Someone that flies 40 weeks a year and upgrades matter, do you reco American or Delta?
I think it’s tough across all of the big 3 with both because they have all been monetizing F so much better than they used to.