I first started flying United Airlines “religiously” in 2004 – and haven’t looked back since. There have been ups and downs in the relationship, to be sure, but after a decade of flying United remains my airline of choice even as I recently dropped from Premier 1K to Premier Gold status.
Why I Like United
If I had to rank my top five reasons for flying United, the list would look like this –
- Route Network
- LAX Hub
- MileagePlus
- Star Alliance
- Price
That list really has not changed over the last several years. One day I will share my more nostalgic reasons for flying United – and that is a big factor for me at least – but these are five fundamentals. I will briefly address each.
> Route Network
United has taken me to six continents over the last decade, including trips to SYD, NRT, LOS, FRA, and EZE but United took me back and forth between LAX and PHL for law school nearly every week during my second half of law school.
United took me back and forth between Germany and the U.S. more than three dozen times as I lived, worked, and fell in love there.
United served me well from IAD when I lived there, FRA when I lived there, PHL when I lived there, and has served me well at LAX my entire life. United is also the only carrier serving ZFV, Philadelphia’s 30th St Rail Station, through its Amtrak codeshare. Only a five-minute walk from my apartment and super-cheap fares made this an incredible selling point for me to choose United.
The route network alone cannot save an airline, but it is the most fundamental selling point.
> LAX Hub
LAX is a rag-tag airport that remains a lovely irritant. The newly refreshed Bradley International Terminal is a godsend, finally liberating that terminal from the Third Word, but the rest of the airport…is still in need of some TLC.
Nevertheless, I have grown to love it over the last decade and grown to appreciate many employees too. The hub is too big to recognize most frequent passengers by name – that was the beauty of flying out of BUR when mainline staff was still there – but there are many familiar faces who will at least say “nice to see you again” without any prompting from me or even a greeting from me. I appreciate that.
This list may be incomplete, but over the years I have flown to SAN, PSP, SJC, OAK, SFO, PDX, SEA, YVR, DEN, IAH, ORD, PHL, JFK, EWR, BOS, MCO, MSY, LAS, PHX, LHR, FRA, and SYD all non-stop from LAX and with the exception of FRA and PHL all of those flights are still available today.
> MileagePlus
The devaluation of MileagePlus was huge last year – it made flying on United much less attractive and as a revenue-based earning scheme comes into effect on 01 March 2015, it is no longer possible to “game the system” in the sense of taking mileage runs or even circuitous routings in order to earn valuable miles: 1K status cannot be obtained for $5K/year anymore. Then again, I have not taken a real mileage run in years: the trips to Germany and from coast to coast more than satisfied my 1K requirement.
But MileagePlus is about more than miles…it is about status too, and by strategically choosing flights and aircraft type, I rarely found myself in the back of the plane. That did not stop nail-biting-down-to-the-wire-sweaty-palm waits for upgrades (I do suffer from Upgrade Phobia) and United’s opaque system for selling upgrades cheaply when elites were waiting to be upgraded rubbed me the wrong way.
And even so, MileagePlus remained a valuable asset. Paired with Chase Ultimate Rewards, destinations all over the world opened up thanks to Star Alliance redemptions options and I have been fortunate to travel in the premium cabins of most Star Alliance members using my United miles. The lack of change, close-in booking or cancellation fees allowed me total flexibility in my travel plans (cf. Delta’s 72-hour no cancellation rule applying even to Diamond Medallion members).
> Star Alliance
As I mentioned above, Star Alliance is a central reason why I remained loyal to United and why I went out of my way to always fly Star Alliance. Though growing, my experience on oneworld and Skyteam carriers remains limited.
I lived in LA – United. Washington DC – United. Philadelphia – US Airways (still part of Star Alliance till 2013). Frankfurt – Lufthansa. Basel – Swiss. I’ve always lived near a Star Alliance hub and that made the loyalty choice easier.
With exceptional coverage in Europe, Africa, East Asia, and now Central Asia on Air India, Star Alliance remains the preeminent alliance. oneworld and SkyTeam have done well in substantially narrowing the gap, but Star remains king.
> Price
Long past the days of $250 vouchers for broken seats and burnt out reading lights, United remained very competitively priced. It did come to a point when I stopped checking the competition, especially as I neared MillionMile status, but for years (occasionally by booking US codeshares operated by UA) United routinely offered the best prices to get me where I needed to go with the easiest chance to upgrade along with the loosest routing rules.
One of my first solo trips on United was in early 2005 when I was flying SFO-STL. Instead of a booking a direct flight, for just a few dollars more I booked SFO-LAX-ORD-STL-PIT-LAX-SFO. Turned out my ORD-STL flight was cancelled and so I rebooked ORD-DEN-STL, missing my Dodgers v. Cardinals game at Busch Stadium but getting five extra hours in first class and a lot more miles.
Why Let 1K Status Drop to Premier Gold?
So you can see, I am rather satisfied with United, even with all the post-merger cutbacks and broken promises that I will not for a moment try to whitewash. Then why did I let my status drop?
Changed circumstances.
When I finished law school, there was no longer a need to travel 5,000 miles a week between PHL and LAX. When I got married last June, there was no longer a reason to fly back and forth between the LAX and FRA to court my wife.
That doesn’t mean I am going to be one of the bloggers who never sets foot on a plane anymore – I am on a plane as I type this now – but it does mean that the race for top-tier status on United is now no longer practical for me. Until United decides to change the program, I have Premier Gold (and thereby Star Alliance Gold status) for life on United, even if I do not do any further flying. My brother has that too, as my designated family member. That is a nice perk.
Even though I will have to get used to flying behind the curtain again – as the upgrades will certainly not come so frequently – I will not have to worry about finding trips to justify 100K miles of flying each year, knowing that my wife and I now have settled in LAX and I work from home. It is a different pace of life, but a welcome change of pace.
I still do not plan to fly AA or DL…United will still be my choice…but it is a relief to have earned the 1MM prize and no longer have to carefully plan each flight to ensure I reach my year-end status goal.
I’m not pro- or anti- UA. For me, it is primarily the route network I fly them, especially for domestic flights. They just usually seem to have the most directs for wherever I am going domestically in the US. I think UA knows that it can count on business due to its routes, and does not think it needs much help from its loyalty program or a high quality product to get people to fly it. TATL one of the other reasons I will pick UA is when I can find business class upgrades at booking with miles. There seems to be more availability of that this year than In past years, which has had me book some flights to Europe on UA that I might otherwise have taken on AF. That will probably move me from UA silver to gold by June, and vice-versa on AF by the end of the year. I guess that essentially makes me a kayaker who can nevertheless be persuaded by business class upgradeability at booking in long-haul.
By the way, your point about UA selling upgrades cheaply cuts both ways. I’ve benefitted from it as a lowly silver because I can still purchase or upgrade to F domestically on UA, usually pretty cheaply, even though my status would never get me upgraded. It is not as important domestically – it is mainly just a slightly better seat – but the price is right or R is available so often, I regularly take it. And I get club access through multiple credit cards. So I have not felt that higher elite status would really make my flying much easier, which is what it is about for me.
I’m in the same spot, Matthew. I did my first ever mileage run at the end of last year to Houston and back just to get enough miles to push me over the 75K threshold. The compelling reason for that was being able to cancel award tickets. As a 1K out of SFO last year, I rarely got upgraded. As I see it, I’m losing 6 GPUs (which are certainly valuable), but beyond that, my experience this year as a plat should be roughly similar to my being 1K last year. I’ve also dropped the United Club in favor of the Amex Platinum card.
As a million miler, it feels somewhat refreshing to no longer care about the ticking status clock…
Not quite true…1K can certainly be earned for under $5K even under the changes coming March 1st (if you reside outside the USA). The downside of the changes to revenue-based mileage only affects RDMs, which are significant to most of us since this is how we get our “free” premium cabin flights. But the changes don’t affect PQM earnings which are still distance based and for those not registered in the USA, there is no Spend requirement. Last year I managed to requalify for 1K this year for just over $3K with some judicious MRs and regular travel. And this year I will be at 45K PQMs by March 1st thanks to UA’s ridiculous C$650 YYZ-SIN fares so could easily get 1K next year for under $3K…however, the RDM changes remove much incentive, yielding about 4.5K RDMs vs the 21K under the current scheme. Obviously that’s the purpose of the Revenue-based model, and thus UA will be “culling the herd” further, me included. (The increase for redemptions on non-UA metal has only added to the negatives of MP.)
Yes, it was to be expected that the “good times” would come to an end, and yes I and others have certainly benefited many times over from MP/UA. I’ve never had a flush employer who’d fly me around the planet in premium cabins, so relied on FF programs and their benefits to enjoy some of the finer things in the air. Coming to the end of my flying years — other than for just personal enjoyment — I will at least have lifetime status in both STAR and OW to smooth my way somewhat in my “retirement” years. So next year I will most likely be like you, MP Gold, instead of 1K…though Platinum wouldn’t be impossible if another C$650 SIN fare comes around!
I really have nothing for or against United, but I have to say, I just don’t get all the love for Star Alliance among the blogosphere. With the exception of Asiana and maybe Copa, every other Star carrier I’ve sampled (Lufthansa, South African, Thai, Turkish) has been a disappointment. Rude, indifferent service, even on LH Business Class. Tired, old Airbus aircraft with no PTVs in coach. A consistently horrible connection experience at FRA (admittedly, no worse than LHR or CDG). I just haven’t been satisfied with what I’ve seen. Perhaps my perspective would be different if I lived in a United hub instead of the AA fortress that is DFW.
@MEANMEOSH — I am surprised your view of Star Alliance is so negative. I have flown the following Star carriers (almost all of them):
And I cannot think of a particularly bad experience on any of them, save for being thrown off the United flight for taking a picture of my seat.
But all LH longhauls now have PTV in economy and having lived in FRA, I have to say I love the airport (and it is better since the remodel a couple years ago).
Glad you reached your 1MM with UA. Congrats!!
@MeanMesh & @Matt – I honestly have enjoyed most flights I have had with Star Alliance carriers, especially those in Asia (I’ve flown Thai, Singapore, Asiana in business). But I won’t lie, I don’t find Star Alliance carriers to be over the top better or even better than other alliance carriers. As I’ve flown JAL economy (OW) and Garuda (ST) and Korean business & economy (ST) to all be fantastic and VERY comfortable whereas China Southern was good for what it was, but long haul (On the A380 business) was amazing IMHO and still among my favorite flights and honestly I didn’t find any ST or *A carrier to be better than CX. I don’t think CX is the best of the best as I’ve flown them in F, J, and Y, but they are very good across the board.
In europe I found KLM inflight service to be MUCH better than LH, SR, or BA and despite bad airports and lounges, I LOVE AB.
In Latin American I find Aeromexico (ST) on par with Avianca/Taca (*A), and both carriers above Copa, but I find LAN/TAM (OW) as the leaders in Latin America.
I could go on, but in my 10 years of flying (yes I didn’t start traveling till I was 18) I have flown 9 of 27 *A carriers (soon to add Egyptair), 9 of 20 Skyteam carriers, and 9 of 15 Oneworld Carriers (soon to add Qatar Airways)–wow that’s odd it’s 9 on each alliance. But point is, I can’t say I LOVE one alliance over the other. I find them all to have their Great airlines, their mediocre, and their bottom feeders!