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United is making changes to its MileagePlus® loyalty program and none of them are good. Members will soon see the loss of Instant Upgrades, the Excursionist Perk, and a fixed price upgrade chart for mileage upgrades. It’s truly disappointing how far this once great program has fallen. Let’s look at the changes one by one.
Goodbye, Instant Upgrades
One of the benefits offered to MileagePlus Premier members traveling on Y or B fares (and Premier 1K® and Global Services® members on M fares) was that these passengers could receive instant, space-available upgrades when booking. The upgrade space required the PN fare bucket to be showing availability for Premier 1K® and Global Services® members and PZ for lower-tier elites to instantly confirm. PN is also the fare bucket that is used for Global Services® members to use PlusPoints to upgrade. PZ is what is used for Premier 1K® and Premier Platinum members to use PlusPoints. These were not the easiest to clear as PN and PZ space is not easy to come by in advance, but it was a benefit that many found useful. Fare class will still be used to sort members eligible for complimentary upgrades within their status levels.
Adios, Excursionist Perk
The Excursionist Perk was a free one-way award within select multi-city trips between at least two award regions. Members who booked a trip with three or more one-way awards could get the first award for free, if the trip met these conditions:
- Your trip starts and ends in the same region.
- The free Excursionist Perk flight starts and ends in the same region.
- Your trip starts in a different region than the free Excursionist Perk flight.
- The free Excursionist Perk flight’s cabin and award tier must be the same or lower than the flight before it.
This ends on August 21st. Reservations booked before that date that have taken advantage of this benefit will still be honored.
Farewell, Upgrade Award Charts
United is planning to take down the charts that show how many miles will be needed for a given upgrade on November 24th. While pricing is currently fixed, it’s about to become dynamic based on the chosen flight. No other details have been revealed including whether co-pays will change and what these rates will be. I expect United to spin it as adding more flights available for upgrades even if rates are exorbitant.
United MileagePlus® has been rapidly marching down a path of decline. Award rates have skyrocketed and benefits are just meh. The funny thing is that I’m actually enjoying flying United more these days. I will re-qualify for Premier 1K® shortly this year. Flights have largely been on time, Wi-Fi is getting better, and the food is much improved. I don’t look for upgrades or use too many of the benefits, but it’s nice to have the status during irregular operations.
Anthony’s Take: It’s a shame that United keeps devaluing MileagePlus®. The once-great program is a shell of what it once was and it does not look like that’s changing anytime soon.
(Image Credits: United Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
2 comments
Time to abandon United.
It was already a weak program on value per mile. Is it now Delta?