The 2025 changes announced to United MileagePlus today confirm my already-made decision to abandon the hamster wheel of frequent flyer elite status. I’m sad, but somewhat relieved!
The End Of My Era As A United Premier 1K Flyer
Today, United announced it will take about 20-25% more spending in 2025 to qualify for elite status than it has this year. Candidly, I think the announced changes are fair and reasonable: there are far too many elites right now, such that Premier 1K members generally do not enjoy the sort of marginal benefits, particularly domestic premium cabin upgrades, that used to be far more common and distinguished 1K from other elite status tiers.
The idea that when everyone is an elite, no one is an elite rings true and while I don’t like that spending requirements will be increased without any meaningful extra benefits (at least not yet…we will see what the PlusPoints changes are once they are unveiled in mid-2025), that seems to me the only way to whittle down numbers other than going back to an old school way of actually tracking miles flown (one can dream…).
Why I Don’t Need Top-Tier Status On United Any Longer
As I look back on my travel record this year, I see that I have received very few complimentary elite upgrades on United; so few that the entire premise of space-available upgrades for 1Ks seems like a bait-and-switch.
> Read More: United Airlines Premier 1K Upgrades – A Reality Check
I’ve purchased a lot more premium cabin space this year, mostly on United but occasionally on American Airlines, and that saves me from upgrade phobia and stress in general. I like to fly upfront and I’m no longer willing to leave it to chance, not that I’d clear if I did…
I haven’t called United for months…the app and website are powerful enough that a call is rarely required. Thus, the 1K customer service and lack of a hold time have not been utilized this year.
Award ticket changes and redeposits are now free for all members, not just 1Ks, and so that is another marginal benefit that no longer matters.
Pre-boarding is nice, but I still (will) enjoy priority boarding and EconomyPlus seat selection at time of booking with my MillionMiler lifetime Premier Gold status. Same with priority check-in, luggage allowance, and security (I use PreCheck anyway).
And yet I don’t want to completely diminish the value of 1K status.
Yes, the loss of PlusPoints will be huge for me…and while many readers have graciously shared PlusPoints with me over the years, I understand that when they can be converted into travel credit or gifted status or PQPs, fewer will be shared.
I’m okay with that. I’m okay with spending more money for business class on the trips that matter and finally being able to fly the carriers I want. For example, I’ve made multiple church-related trips to Africa. I’ve always paid a premium to fly on United or Lufthansa versus Qatar Airways, even though Qatar Airways offers a far better product.
That ends now. I’ll just fly Qatar Airways. I think I come out ahead…
Now, I’ve done extremely well this year in terms of using up all my PlusPoints on longhaul United upgrades. My schedule tends to be more flexible and I have enjoyed upgrades to Polaris Business Class over and over this year. In fact, I was able to upgrade my entire family to London two years in a row using PlusPoints on cheap tickets. It’s a beautiful thing.
But there’s a cost for that. I’m done taking trips I don’t need just for status. I’m not going to do segment runs or extra trips just to renew status.
I’m at about $12K in spending for this year and will stop at Premier Platinum status. I just cannot organically get to $18K or $22K in spend for travel…both in good conscience and because my travel patterns do not add up to those amounts, even when I buy premium cabin tickets. I’m also not currently a Chase customer.
Embracing Free Agency When It Comes To Air Travel…And Hotels
There have been some life-changing events, both personally and professionally, that I have not written about yet, but I will in due time. That has impacted my travel as well and made it very hard to requalify for airline (and hotel) status this year. My British Airways Gold status recently lapsed, and my United status will drop to Platinum next year.
And at this point, I actually have no idea what my travel patterns will look like next year. There may be more domestic travel, there may not be. There may be more international travel, there may not be. I do have a couple of review trips already booked, but those were paid for with miles.
I just got back from Europe, flying Virgin Atlantic on the way out and JetBlue back…in economy class (with my whole family). Was it great? Well, about as great as economy class can be…but it was also far cheaper than a revenue ticket on United and we did just fine.
As an aside, I’m also giving up Globalist status with World of Hyatt. While I still hope to earn Lifetime Globalist status one day, I’m nowhere close and I realized at my recent stay at the rather disgusting Hyatt House in Schaumburg that I’m not going to deal with these limited-service properties just to maintain my status. There’s a backstory at play here, but I’ve enjoyed spending a lot more time at home lately.
I have friends and family members who are Globalist and they’ve already volunteered to share Guest of Honor benefits for me for any stay that really matters.
CONCLUSION
The MileagePlus news today comes both as a disappointment and a relief. In a sense, ti does not matter since Ialeayd made the decision this year to step off the hamster wheel, but it just reinforces that decision and will make it easier to buy based on product, schedule, and price, not carrier next year.
Despite the poor food onboard, I like everything else about United, and I suspect I’ll continue to fly United quite a bit, especially domestically. But it will be on my terms and I look forward to seeing what true free agency is actually like.
